Category: Avengers

Posted on

Invincible Iron Man Epic Collection volume 7 (1976-1978): Ten Rings to Rule the World


By Bill Mantlo, Gerry Conway, Herb Trimpe, Roger Stern, George Tuska, Keith Pollard, Keith Giffen, Carmine Infantino, Jeff Aclin, Mike Esposito, Don Perlin, Jack Abel, Fred Kida, Alfredo Alcala, Rudy Nebres, Bruce Patterson, Josef Rubinstein, Bob Wiacek, Pablo Marcos, Don Newton & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-6059-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Arch-technocrat and supreme survivor Tony Stark has changed profile and rebuilt himself many times since debuting in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963). There and then, as a VIP visitor to Vietnam assessing the efficacy of munitions he had designed, the inventor was critically wounded and captured by sinister, savage Communists. Put to work building weapons with the dubious promise of medical assistance upon completion, Stark instead crafted the first of innumerable technologically-augmented protective suits to keep himself alive and deliver him from his oppressors. From there it was a simple – transistor-powered – jump to full time superheroics as a modern Knight in Shining Armour…

Conceived after the Cuban Missile Crisis at a time when Western economies were booming and “Commie-bashing” was America’s obsession, a dashing new Thomas Edison employing Yankee ingenuity, wealth and invention to safeguard the Land of the Free and better the World seemed an obvious development. Combining then-sacrosanct faith that technology and business in unison could solve any problem, with the universal imagery of noble knights battling evil, Stark – the Invincible Iron Man – seemed an infallibly successful proposition.

Of course, whilst he was the acceptable face of 1960s Capitalism – a glamorous, benevolent, rich, technocratic and all-conquering hero when clad in super-scientific armour – the turbulent tone of the 1970s soon relegated his suave, “can-do” image to the dustbin of history. With ecological disaster and social catastrophe from myriad big business abuses new zeitgeists of the young, the Golden Avenger and Stark International were soon confronting some tricky questions from an increasingly politically savvy readership.

With glamour, money and fancy gadgetry not quite so cool anymore the questing voices of a new generation of writers began posing uncomfortable questions in the pages of a series that was once a bastion of militarised America. Collectively accommodating cover-dates November 1976 to October 1978, this Epic chronological epistle completes that transitional period, reprinting Iron Man #92-114, plus Annual #4 and a guest yarn from Marvel Premiere #44 as Bill Mantlo’s passionate writing triggered a minor renaissance in the Steel Sentinel’s chrome-plated chronicles that resulted in some of the best stories of the Eighties era. It also returned Iron Man to the top-rank of Marvel stars.

If you’re a fan thanks to the movie interpretation, that iteration starts right here, right now…

The mettle majesty opens with manic menace The Melter who soon regrets an ill-advised grudge rematch in ‘Burn, Hero… Burn!’ (Gerry Conway, George Tuska & Jack Abel) before Herb Trimpe returns to plot and pencil Iron Man #93. Pitting Old Shellhead against a British-based modern-day pirate in ‘Kraken Kills’ (Conway script & Abel inks), the self-declared Commander deduces Stark’s secret identity before blackmailing the inventor into building weapons for his super-submarine fleet. Never at a loss, though, Stark turns the tables, sparking ‘Frenzy at Fifty Fathoms!’ to scupper the madman’s plans…

Invincible Iron Man Annual #4 (August 1977) offers an all-action alliance with newly constituted super-team The Champions by Mantlo, Tuska & inker Don Perlin. When psychic assassin M.O.D.O.K. overwhelms the Golden Avenger, Iron Man calls in old allies Black Widow and Hercules (plus teammates Ghost Rider, Iceman, Darkstar and The Angel) to thwart ‘The Doomsday Connection!’

Also from that issue comes an out-of-place martial arts vignette by Roger Stern, Jeff Aclin & Don Newton. ‘Death Lair!’ stars former Master of Kung Fu villain Midnight on a mission of murder against old Iron Man enemy Half-Face…

The regular monthly climb to reclaimed pole position resumes with veteran Iron Man artist Tuska joining plotter Conway, scripter Mantlo and inker Perlin in unleashing giant android ‘Ultimo!’ (IM #95, cover-dated February 1977) against Washington DC. Clad in upgraded armour and in the Capitol to answer congressional questions about his company, Stark is targeted by a vengeful hidden nemesis who activates the mountainous monster for a classic B-movie sci fi rampage in the streets, with the Golden Avenger supplementing hard pressed Army and National Guard units… before falling in ignominious defeat due to sabotage…

Mantlo, Tuska & Abel prove you can’t keep a good Iron Man down as the embattled hero rallies and retaliates in ‘Only a Friend Can Save Him’ as former close ally and dutiful S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jasper Sitwell joins the counterattack. Meanwhile, a long-simmering plotline advances as NYPD detective Michael O’Brien – who holds Stark responsible and accountable for the death of his brother Kevin – finally allows his obsession with a cover-up to pull him across legal lines and into collusion with shady PI Harry Key, whose latest client also has nasty plans for the playboy inventor…

Thanks to ingenuity and sheer guts, Stillwell & Iron Man seemingly destroy Ultimo deep below DC, but their triumph is short lived as a return to Stark’s Long Island factory provokes a ‘Showdown with the Guardsman!’ (Conway, Mantlo, Tuska & Perlin). When Mike takes PA Krissy Longfellow hostage, steals the armour suit that drove his brother insane and ambushes the Golden Avenger wearing it, the clash is swift and brutal. Thankfully this time, the blockbusting battle ends before another good man dies…

Whilst subsequently treating O’Brien, another distraction comes when an old frenemy attacks the facility and US interventionist economic practises. ‘Sunfire Strikes Again!’ sees the Japanese ultra-nationalist mutant warrior again seek to derail progress, unaware that he’s a pawn of the lurking presence gunning for Stark. However, the harried hero’s problems start with the fact that his greatest weapon is offline and he’s fighting in borrowed Guardsman armour. When the conflict frees imprisoned Michael O’Brien, the cop seeks to make amends by joining the battle in an obsolete Iron Man outfit, but – even with Mike Esposito inking – the new allies rapidly find themselves ‘At the Mercy of the Mandarin!’

During the melee, Key tries his luck in the Stark vaults once too often and encounters an unexpected problem, thanks to another insidious infiltrator planted by a different scheming mastermind. However, having freed himself, Tony is too now busy rushing to a far-distant, potentially world-ending final battle in anniversary issue #100. Invading China, Iron Man faces horrors, homunculi Death Squads, nuclear armageddon and his most obsessive enemy whose ‘Ten Rings to Rule the World!’ ultimately prove insufficient to the task…

With the tyrant’s countless plots to discredit Stark now exposed, our hero starts a long journey home, even as in Long Island, Harry Key, Sitwell and one of the traitors in Stark’s midst begin a cautious espionage dance…

Iron Man’s trip stalls when he’s shot down over Yugoslavia (just google it) and awakens in a creepy old castle filled with freaks and outcasts safeguarded by a familiar – to elderly or dedicated Marvelites at least – huge and daunting figure. Recovering in ‘Then Came the Monster!’ our weary voyager views Castle Frankenstein and panics: clashing with the gentle “Modern Prometheus” before the real menace emerges.

Inked by Esposito & Pablo Marcos, ‘Dreadknight and the Daughter of Creation!’ channels old Marvel horror tales as a brutal and brutalised escaped experiment of Doctor Doom’s laboratories seeks to compel the great granddaughter of Victor Frankenstein to share with him the secrets of creating life…

This ruthless high-tech paladin’s sadistic efforts are eventually thwarted by Iron Man and the original (good) Monster, after which the Steel-Shod Sentinel at last arrives home in #103’s ‘Run for the Money!’ by Mantlo, Tuska & Esposito. Sadly, it’s just in time for the next domestic crisis as Sitwell exposes the traitor only to be captured by revolting corporate villain Midas, who – patience exhausted – launches a truly hostile takeover using tanks, mercenaries, lawyers and the Stock Market…

He is temporarily checked by itinerant junior hero/innocent bystander Jack of Hearts who – as per standard Marvel protocol – is attacked by weary, late arriving Iron Man who misconstrues events and assaults the well-meaning stranger. Shock follows shock as Midas’ legal chicanery forces Iron Man’s surrender, ceding control of Stark International to his enemy, even as the villain’s agent and top lieutenant Madame Masque quits to ally herself with the defeated hero and his ousted, outmanoeuvred alter ego Tony Stark.

In the aftermath, repercussions of the takeover ripple outwards. With Stark no longer paying her bill, deeply disturbed super-telepath (and former Stark inamorata) Marianne Rodgers is kicked out of the sanatorium that has been keeping her psionic deadly tendencies in check…

The fightback begins in ‘Triad! (Mantlo, Tuska & Esposito) after Stark initially refuses the help of Masque. Thus she instead allies with former lover/patsy Sitwell whilst elsewhere, interested parties Michael O’Brien and Jack of Hearts also seek to stop Midas converting Stark’s purloined resources into a world-conquering armed force. Also heading slowly towards a showdown, Marianne graduates towards Long Island, leaving a trail of bodies in her wake…

With ‘Every Hand Against Him!’ and despite the stakes being so high, Tony has quit forever, preferring to hide in his father’s old house with Madame Masque. Less sanguine over the crisis and National Security threat, many of Iron Man’s allies join a volunteer force recruited by psychic superhero The Wraith and eventually consisting of Police Captain Jean de Wolf, former Iron Man stand-in Eddie March, The Guardsman & Jack of Hearts, covertly backed up by Sitwell and (the first) Nick Fury…

Still short of power, they co-opt through blackmail, Masque’s lethal skills and Tony’s last remaining armour suit to take out Midas. ‘Then There Came a War!’ (#106) sees the squad invade SI to face a legion of automated Iron Men. At the height of battle Marianne Rodgers – in a fugue state – finally reaches her destination. As Keith Pollard & Fred Kida step in to illustrate the catastrophic conclusion, ‘And, in the End…’ sees her power tip the scales, uncovering even more treachery in Tony’s inner circle and inspiring the despondent hero to take back his heritage, his company and his honour…

With most of his allies apparently dead, Iron Man calls in Avenging ally Yellowjacket (AKA original Ant-Man Henry Pym) to help whip up a miracle cure in #108 (Mantlo, Carmine Infantino & Bob Wiacek). This incurs some ‘Growing Pains!’ and a palate-cleansing action-filled monster-bash as the clear-up somehow reactivates Kang the Conqueror’s devastating Growing Man android to add to the wreckage and rubble…

Once the fighting is finished, rebuilding Stark International begins, with Mantlo, Infantino & Kida dictating the pace prior to another crisis after Jack of Hearts traces the Growing Man’s programming commands as emanating from Luna. Thus Iron Man and his superhero apprentice board a Quinjet and experiences a very painful ‘Moonrise!’ when their mission intersects a secret sortie by Soviet Super-soldiers Darkstar, Vanguard & Crimson Dynamo. The Communist cosmonauts are only investigating a bizarre alien artefact, but entrenched political and personal animosities spark a savage clash. Both sides are preoccupied when the silver egg activates, transporting those closest to it – the Americans – to somewhere far, far away…

Mantlo, Pollard & Kida stretch their fantasy muscles in an astral epic as the heroes materialise aboard a vast ship bearing Colonizers of Rigel to their next conquest. Sadly, these ‘Sojourners Through Space!’ have targeted Wundagore II – used by animal-enhancing man-made deity the High Evolutionary to store former experiments – and are soon caught up in a battle against formidable space Knights of Wundagore and two devastating late-arriving, quickly escaping human captives within their colossal Command ship…

When an alliance of humans and hyper-evolved Earth beasts proves too costly, the Rigellian venture is called off in ‘The Man, the Metal, and the Mayhem!’  but this in turn leads to renegade Colonizer subcommander Arcturus spitefully targeting Earth with a robot stolen from Galactus (the original Punisher from Fantastic Four #48-50). Upon its despatch, closing instalment ‘Moon Wars!’ (IM #112, July 1978 by Mantlo, Pollard & Alfredo Alcala) sees a swift, unauthorised Colonizer strike prompt a desperate dash back to Luna and shattering descent to Detroit for Iron Man, resulting in blistering battle with the cosmic weapon of chastisement and a new definition of the word “invincible” for the triumphant Golden Avenger…

With Mantlo scripting, Pollard layout pages and Trimpe’s pencilling for inker Josef Rubinstein, Iron Man #113 trumpeted a fresh beginning for Stark International after defeating the bloody takeover bid of Mr Midas. However, as the new complex opened for business, an old enemy is already infiltrating the company whilst a more brazen assault comes after a dying foe is manipulated into attacking the complex using ‘The Horn of the Unicorn!’

Seeking help for the beaten-and-at-death’s door Unicorn, the Metal Marvel consults The Avengers and inadvertently triggers a second assault by the villain who also activates a long-interred robotic threat that seems agonisingly familiar in ‘The Menace of… Arsenal!’ (Mantlo, Giffen & Bruce D. Patterson) leading to a turning point moment you’ll need the next book or another collection to enjoy…

To Be Continued…

Here, however, one last narrative nubbin comes from Marvel Premiere #44 (October 1978): the one-shot try-out of Stark’s former apprentice, by Mantlo, Giffen & Rudy Nebres). ‘The Jack of Hearts!’ reexamines the origin of trust fund brat Jack Hart, who was inundated in the experimental “zero fluid” invented by his murdered father. Seemingly resurrected and imbued with incredible energy and computational powers, Jack hunts The Corporation who ordered the hit and here – thanks to new connection in S.H.I.E.L.D. – inconclusively clashes with their preferred hitman Hemlock…

With covers throughout by Jack Kirby, Al Milgrom, Abel, Ron Wilson, Dan Adkins, Gil Kane, Dave Cockrum, Sal Buscema, Jim Starlin, Val Mayerik, George Pérez, Terry Austin, Frank Giacoia, Joe Sinnott, Joe Rubinstein, John Byrne, Wiacek, Pollard, John Romta Jr., Ed Hannigan & Frank Giacoia, other extras include house ads, cartoon fan letter ‘Printed Circuits’ (by Fred Hembeck from #112); editorial pages and style sheets from Marvel Premiere #44 and original art covers by Starlin, Mayerik & Cockrum.

From our distant vantage point the polemical energy and impact might be dissipated, but the sheer quality of the comics and cool thrill of the eternal aspiration of man in perfect partnership with magic metal remains. These Fights ‘n’ Tights classics are amongst the most underrated but impressive tales of the period and are well worth your time, consideration and cold hard cash
© 2025 MARVEL.

You’d think we barely have room for a review this time as it’s such an auspicious day for comics…

In 1912 today creepy cartoon colossus Charles Addams was born, and in 1929 both Buck Rogers by Dick Calkins and Hal Foster’s Tarzan strips debuted. In 1934 Alex Raymond & Don Moore launched Jungle Jim and a year later combined it with new idea Flash Gordon.

Underground and Mad magazine artist Jay Lynch was born in 1945 and two years later Milton Caniff premiered his other masterpiece with the launch of Steve Canyon. That ran until 1988.

In 1953, Bob Wiacek joined the party as did Karl Kesel in 1959, and publisher Fabrice Giger (Les Humanoïdes Associés) arrived in 1965. Surely by coincidence, two years after, that nativity was followed by the launch of Greg & Eddie Paape’s Luc Orient in Le Journal de Tintin.

Posted on

The Mighty Thor Epic Collection volume 25: The Dark Gods (1998-1999)


By Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr., Tom DeFalco, Howard Mackie, J.M. DeMatteis, Klaus Janson, John Buscema, Ramon Bernado, Klaus Janson, Mark Pennington, Scott Hanna, Jerry Ordway & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-6411-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Punch-Punch! Smite-Smite! Gosh Wow!… 8/10

In the middle of 1962, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby launched their latest offbeat superhero creation in anthology monsters-and-mysteries title Journey into Mystery #83. The edifying epic introduced meek, disabled American doctor Donald Blake who took a vacation in Norway only to encounter the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing in terror, he was trapped in a cave and found an old, gnarled walking stick. When, in helplessness and frustration, he smashed the cane into a huge boulder obstructing his escape, his insignificant frame was transformed into the hulking and brawny Norse God of Thunder, Thor!

The series grew from formulaic beginnings battling aliens, commies and cheap thugs into a vast, breathtaking cosmic playground for Kirby’s burgeoning imagination with Journey into Mystery inevitably becoming The Mighty Thor. After years of celestial adventuring, the peculiarities and inconsistencies of the Don Blake/Thor relationship were re-examined – as well as his doomed romance with his nurse Jane Foster – and all was finally clarified and explained regarding how an immortal godling could also be frail Dr. Blake.

The saga took the immortal hero back to his long-distant youth, ultimately revealing that the mortal surgeon was no more than an Odinian deception: a living shell designed to teach the Thunder God humility and compassion…

Time passed, Kirby left and the Thunderer’s fortunes waxed and waned. During the troubled mid-1990’s the title vanished, culled with The Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and Fantastic Four and subcontracted out to Image creators Jim Lee & Rob Liefeld during 1996-1997 in a desperate attempt to improve sales after Marvel’s apocalyptic Onslaught event.

In 1998 Heroes Return and Heroes Reborn saw those properties rejoin the greater Marvel Universe, relaunched with new first issues. The Thunder God reappeared a few weeks later as in July, Mighty Thor volume 2 launched. This compendium gathers # Mighty Thor #1-13, plus Silver Surfer & Thor Annual 1998; Thor Annual ’99 & Peter Parker, Spider-Man #2 spanning July 1998 to July 1999.

It begins with ‘In Search of the Gods’ by Dan Jurgens, John Romita Jr. & Klaus Janson, finding the Thunderer back on Midgard after more than a year away from the home cosmos, and instantly involved in a desperate hostage situation. Acting immediately, he ends the crisis only to discover the perpetrator is a currently-powerless Guardian God Heimdall. Recently in contemporaneously relaunched Avengers #1, Thor had found Asgard devastated and deserted and now that shocking mystery has been further compounded on Earth…

Elsewhere, Death Goddess Hela and Volla the Prophetess conspire in anticipation of cosmic calamity and desires finally reaching fruition, even as a military shipment goes badly awry at New York’s docks where EMT/paramedic Jake Olsen gets the call to assist…

Before leaving Heimdall with (now) Doctor Jane Foster, Thor and the sentinel Asgardian explored shattered Asgard again, inadvertently liberating an unknown horror from ancient captivity, but all that is forgotten as the docks situation worsens and Thor joins the hard-pressed Avengers in battling reawakened Odinian ultimate weapon The Destroyer…

Despite the best efforts of the World’s Mightiest Heroes, the carnage is shattering and people die. People like Olson… and Thor…

Thor’s story nevertheless continues as his journey to Hela’s realm is interrupted by disturbing new cosmic entity Marnot who claims the Thunderer’s soul and returns it to the living world, bound to equally-miraculously resurrected Olsen in a reprise of the spell that created Don Blake… and just in time to stop The Destroyer. However, the new-old arrangement will prove to be a true ‘Deal with the Devil!’

Reborn as ‘God and Man’ in #3, the Storm Lord again walks the Earth – but only as the dormant-until-summoned alter-ego of another frail mortal host with a painfully complex personal life. It makes battling the sea-monsters of beguiling sea-goddess Sedna beside former Avenger Namor the Sub-Mariner a far from friendly reunion in ‘From the Ashes’…

Next comes a notional prequel tale from Silver Surfer & Thor Annual 1998, courtesy of Tom DeFalco, Ramon Bernado & Mark Pennington. ‘Millennius!’ finds the Silver Surfer beset by frost giants that have somehow escaped the confines of Asgard. After thrashing and returning them whence they belong, investigation beside the stormy Prince uncovers a plot by an exiled vengeful if not utterly deranged primal god determined to wreak havoc upon the modern universe and resume reshaping what remains to his dark whims. Thanks to the valour of the heroes he does not succeed…

TMT #5 finds the Thunderer still acclimating to his personal new normal and the decidedly different requirements of mortal crimes and crises. This somehow leads to Mjolnir rebelling after Thor’s take-charge personality overrules Olsen’s legal authority when the still readjusting godling compels his paramedic self to perform illegal surgery to save a life in ‘Heroes’…

The wreckers of Asgard and Marnot have been manoeuvring in the background throughout and following a flashback to Asgardian childhood, ‘What’s a God to Do?’ sees Thor edging closer to the truth after another pointless clash with best pal Hercules. Once the dust has settled, Thor finds his people have been framed for attacking Olympus even as in Asgard, the fate of the vanquished All-Father is revealed. However, this ‘Deception’ has proven effective, and Thor & Hercules are attacked by the entire outraged Hellenic pantheon…

The true architects of most of this mayhem are a pantheon of previously unknown Dark Gods – Perrikus, Adva, D’Chel, Slottoth, Tokkots and Majeston Zelia – so powerful that they have managed to take possession of the fallen Fabled Realm, consistently attacking Thor since his return; now barring him entirely from reaching his sundered home…

We diverge briefly for Mighty Thor Annual ‘99 which at last revealed why Thor arrived back in our universe so much later than his Avenging Allies. Written and pencilled by Jurgens with inks from Janson, ‘The Tears of a God’ found Thor visiting The Fantastic Four and describing the dimensional rip which left him partially amnesiac and filled with ineffable sadness, before – for our eyes only – the story is fully disclosed…

After battling Doctor Doom in the void between worlds, Thor and the Iron Dictator were cast onto an alien planet where the wounded Thunderer was nursed to health by a mysterious outcast named Ceranda. Somehow unable to leave the desolate world, the lost scion of Asgard grew slowly closer to the beautiful hermit, whilst elsewhere Doom was taking control of a subterranean society: co-opting their technology and resources to his selfish needs…

The last thing the Lord of Latveria needed for escape was Thor’s dimension-spanning hammer and he knew the true reason why it wasn’t working. This tale of dark desire and selfish love ended badly all round so perhaps its best that after the battle and return to Earth Thor had no memory of weeks spent with bewitching Ceranda…

Back at now, a stellar crossover between hammer-hurler and webspinner opens in Thor #8 as the Thunder God encounters the astounding arachnid as Tokkots goes on an Earthly rampage in ‘…and the Home of the Brave!’ prior to being spectacularly defeated and despatched to enslaved Asgard in ‘Plaything of the Gods’ (as seen in Peter Parker, Spider-Man #2, by Howard Mackie, Romita Jr. & Scott Hanna).

The end of the reinvigorated Storm Lord’s first extended story-arc comes with ‘Answers’ by regular writer Jurgens and guest illustrators John Buscema & Jerry Ordway when a vintage robotic menace returns. Here a couple of young punks luck into the operating system for android bandit Replicus and whilst the earthbound Thunder God is taking care of business in Asgard, dark usurpers are crowing over the ravaged, tortured bodies of his best friend Balder, eternally betrothed Lady Sif and mighty sire Odin, all the while scheming how to destroy the last remaining free Asgardian…

Thor is just as keen on facing his elusive tormentors and finally gains insight from enigmatic Marnot, who teasingly reveals a long-ago day when the early Asgardians encountered a rival pantheon: happily cruel gods dominating and enslaving the realm of Narcisson and just begging to begin a brutal all-out war with new foes. Against all logic the Narcissons won and were on the verge of eradicating the Asgardians until a juvenile Thor turned the tide, enabling Odin and his surviving warriors to carry the day. With these Dark Gods routed and captive, the All-Father wiped the memories of his own triumphant warriors to spare them the trauma and loss of so many comrades and loved ones. Now, however, the Narcisson gods were somehow free and had at last conquered the Eternal Realm. Armed with knowledge, Thor began to prepare for the invasion and liberation of Asgard…

The final campaign began in the three chapter saga ‘The Dark Wars: part I’, by Jurgens, Romita Jr. & Janson as human Jake Olsen frantically starts setting his complex human affairs in order. The conjoined hero is utterly unaware that colleague Dr. Foster has deduced his godly secret and that an unknown mortal enemy is setting him up to take the fall for selling stolen hospital drugs…

Before the exiled prince is ready to act, Perrikus attacks New York City, demanding a duel with the Odin-son and threatening to kill Lady Sif if the Thunderer doesn’t show. With the gateway to Asgard clear, Thor’s rapid response finds the city as bad as ever and his loved ones broken toys of the Dark Gods. Enraged, he attacks but the blockbusting battle sees his magic mallet cloven in half and he feels himself impossibly transforming back into mortal Jake…

Taking cover in a sewer, Olsen discovers an horrific underworld beneath the shattered city and is taken by trolls to the very bowels of Asgard. Soon, the frail human is being worked to death whilst far above the black pantheon are unable to detect any trace of vanished Thor. However, the broken hero feels untrammelled hope and joy when he discovers many of his missing Asgardian comrades are also enslaved in the noisome pits…

Sadly, before Olsen can even attempt to rescue them, vile Tokkots appears and whisks him back to the throne-room and the waiting Narcissons. Perrikus is furious that he cannot battle his true enemy, only a mortal shell, but everything changes when the broken, battered Midgardian falls on the remnant of Mjolnir and is mystically metamorphosed into a fighting mad Storm Lord…

Unexpectedly, Thor flees into inter-dimensional space, realising that pride and fury are not enough and that what he really needs are potent allies…

The fearsome finale comes in ‘The Dark Wars: part III’ as the conflicted champion convinces the deadly Destroyer and Hercules to raid his once-Golden Realm in a blistering last charge against the Dark Ones and their massed minions whilst he raids the depths to free Asgardian survivors and activates a cleverly concealed ally. Soon Odin, Sif and Balder are free and the fall of the Narcissons is seemingly assured – but the malignant invaders still have one last nasty card to play…

It proves not enough and eventually the brutalised Asgardians are triumphant, after which epilogue ‘The Work of Odin’ answers many questions; such as the identity of manipulative schemer Marnot, the ultimate fate of the human trapped within the deadly Destroyer’s shell and the future of both light and dark gods…

Backed up by a wealth of covers and variants by Romita Jr., Janson, Hanna, Bernado, Jurgens Joe Jusko & Mark Farmer; developmental sketches; house and trade press ads (from Marvel Vision, Marvel Catalog, Marvel Monthly, Wizard #80) supplemented with interviews & previews – ‘Juggling with Jurgens’, ‘Dan Jurgens’ and ‘Working the Second Shift with John Romita Jr.’ – the extras also include the cover to rushed-out reprint Thor: Resurrection by Romita Jr., Janson & Gregory Wright and editor Tom Brevoort’s Afterword from it, before closing on Thor #7’s stunning original art cover.

This almost excessively action-packed if plot light chronicle is an all-out, rocket-paced return to comic book basics, and, whilst perhaps not to everyone’s taste (it’s woefully short of anything even approaching a funny moment), is a blistering epic to delight the Fight’s ‘n’ Tights faithful, with the artwork undeniably some of the best of the modern Marvel Age. If you want your pulses to pound and your graphic senses to swim, this is the ideal item for you.
© 2025 MARVEL.

Today in 1921 Len Dworkins was born. He took over drawing the Buck Rogers newspaper strip in 1949 and also handled aviation standard Skyroads from 1939 using nom de plume Leon Gordon. More significantly, today is the anniversary of The Dandy’s debut in 1937, which I’ve gone on about incessantly for the last few months. Feel free to scroll back and check…

In 1961 cartoonist Don “Megaton Man” Simpson was born and in 1984 the UK saw the last War Picture Library comic digest released into newsagents, sweetshops and railway kiosks. It was #2103 if you’re counting…

Posted on

Captain America Marvel Masterworks volume 3


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, Syd Shores, Dan Adkins, Frank Giacoia, Joe Sinnott, George Tuska, Tom Palmer & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2063-6 (HB) 978-0-7851-8803-2 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Pure Superhero Swashbuckling… 10/10

During the Marvel Renaissance of the early 1960’s Stan Lee & Jack Kirby imitated the tactic that had worked so tellingly for DC Comics, but with mixed results. Julie Schwartz had scored an incredible success with his revised versions of the company’s Golden Age greats, so it seemed natural to try and revive the characters that had dominated Timely/Atlas in those halcyon days.

A new Human Torch premiered as part of the revolutionary Fantastic Four, and in the fourth issue of that title Sub-Mariner resurfaced after a 20-year amnesiac hiatus (everyone concerned had apparently forgotten the first abortive attempt to revive an “Atlas” superhero line in the mid-1950s). The Torch was promptly given his own solo feature in Strange Tales beginning in #101, and in #114 the flaming teen fought an acrobat pretending to be Captain America.

With reader reaction strong, the “real” thing promptly resurfaced in Avengers #4 and, after a captivating, centre-stage hogging run in that title, the Sentinel of Opportunity was granted his own series as half of “split-book” Tales of Suspense (from #59, cover-dated November 1964).

However, Marvel’s inexorable rise to dominance in the American comic book industry really took hold in 1968 when many of their characters finally got their own full length titles. Prior to that and due to a highly restrictive distribution deal, the company was tied to a limit of 16 publications per month. To circumvent this, Marvel developed those titles with two series per publication, such as Tales of Suspense where original star Iron Man shared honours with Cap. When the division came, Shellhead started afresh with a big deal First Issue, whilst Cap retained the numbering of the original title; thereby premiering with #100.

This resoundingly resolute full-colour collection spanning May 1968 to May 1969 – and available in hardcover, trade paperback and digital editions – re-presents Captain America #101-113 and also includes a fervent Introductory reminiscence from arch-Kirby appreciator John Morrow, plus a fascinating Afterword by industry legend Jim Steranko wherein he meticulously and methodically deconstructs the landmark epic that comprises the end of this titanic tome…

Crafted by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & legendary 1940s Cap illustrator Syd Shores, Captain America #101-102 recount the return of fascist revenant the Red Skull who here deploys yet another appalling Nazi revenge-weapon in ‘When Wakes the Sleeper!’ This results in boatloads of furious action and a classic clash of wills and ideologies in furious finale ‘The Sleeper Strikes!’ It all began as our hero and his trusty support crew Agent 13 & Nick Fury hunt a murderous mechanoid capable of ghosting through solid Earth and blowing up the planet…

Although the immediate threat is quickly quashed, the instigator remains at large and #103 exposes ‘The Weakest Link!’ as the budding romance with S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 13 (finally revealed after two years as Sharon Carter) is cruelly interrupted by the nefarious Nazi. The über-fascist’s latest scheme of nuclear blackmail also extends to a second issue, wherein his aging band of war-criminal assassins, The Exiles, sequentially test Cap nigh to destruction on the hidden isle where our hero becomes the ‘Slave of the Skull!’

That issue and following super-villain team-up – wherein Living Laser and The Swordsman ally with another flamboyant Cap foe to battle ‘In the Name of Batroc!’ – feature the loose, flowing inking of Dan Adkins, before Frank Giacoia embellishes all-action, sinister spies-&-devious-doppelgangers romp ‘Cap Goes Wild!’ in #106.

Shores spectacularly returns in #107 embellishing sinister mystery ‘If the Past Be Not Dead…’: a panic-paced-paced psycho-thriller introducing malevolent, mind-bending world-conquering psychiatrist Doctor Faustusâ’…

The Star-Spangled Avenger is once again rescuing Agent 13 – or at least he thinks he is – in breakneck thriller ‘The Snares of the Trapster!’ before Captain America #109 redefines his origin for the Sixties generation with ‘The Hero That Was!’: a blistering and bombastic wrap-up to Kirby’s run on the Sentinel of Liberty… at least for the moment.

Comics phenomenon and one-man sensation Jim Steranko then took over the art – and art direction – with #110 for a far-too-brief stint that was to become everybody’s favourite Star Spangled epic for decades to come.

After a swift and brutal skirmish with the Incredible Hulk, teen appendage Rick Jones becomes the patriotic paladin’s new sidekick in ‘No Longer Alone!’, just in time for the pair to tackle the memorably lascivious, ferociously fetishistic Madame Hydra – and her eerily obedient hordes – in #111’s ‘Tomorrow You Live, Tonight I Die!’ Both are inked by Joe Sinnott in a landmark saga that inspired and galvanised a generation of would-be comics artists.

With the Avenger seemingly killed at the issue’s close, the next month saw a bombastic account of Captain America’s serried career by fill-in superstars Kirby & George Tuska, before Lee, Steranko & Tom Palmer returned to conclude the Hydra affair with ‘The Strange Death of Captain America’ in #113.

This yarn reset the veteran warrior’s character and dictated his heroic trajectory; and led to a whole new career path…

Also on offer are a selection of Kirby’s original art pages and covers, including rejected and unseen pencil versions prior to editing and the draconian interference of the Comics Code Authority…

These are tales of dauntless courage and unmatchable adventure, fast-paced and superbly illustrated, which rightly returned Captain America to the heights that his Golden Age compatriots Human Torch and Sub-Mariner never regained. They are pure escapist magic: glorious treats for the eternally young at heart, and episodes of sheer visual dynamite that cannot be slighted and should not be missed.
© 1968, 1969, 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Today in 1914, Timely Marvel founding force Vince Fago was born, as was contemporary universe-builder Jerry Ordway. In 2012 utterly unique commix creator Spain Rodriguez died. He probably saw it coming… and you can learn all you should already know about him by viewing Spain: Rock, Roll, Rumbles, Rebels & Revolution.

Posted on

Incredible Hulk Epic Collection volume 1: Man or Monster? (1962-1964)


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Paul Reinman, Dick Ayers, George Roussos, Chic Stone & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9600-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Timeless Monster Madness Masterpieces… 10/10

We all still like superheroes right? Here’s a bunch of yarns thou shouldst not miss…

Chronologically collecting the Jade Juggernaut’s earliest appearances, this titanic tome (available as a hefty paperback and relatively weightless digital edition) gathers Incredible Hulk #1-6; Fantastic Four #2 & 25-26; Avengers #1-3 & 5, Amazing Spider-Man #14; Tales to Astonish #59 and an unforgettable clash with Thor from Journey into Mystery #112: cumulatively spanning early 1962 to the end of 1964.

The Incredible Hulk was new-born Marvel’s second new superhero title, despite Henry Pym technically debuting earlier in a one-off yarn from Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962). However, Hank didn’t become a costumed hero until the autumn, by which time Ol’ Greenskin was not-so-firmly established.

The Hulk smashed right into his own bi-monthly comic and, after some classic romps by Young Marvel’s finest creators, crashed right out again. After six issues the series was cancelled and Lee retrenched, making the Gruff Green Giant a perennial guest-star in other titles until such time as they could restart the drama in their new “Split-Book” format in TtA where Ant/Giant-Man was rapidly proving to be a character who had outlived his time.

Cover-dated May 1962, Incredible Hulk #1 finds puny atomic scientist Bruce Banner sequestered on a secret military base in the desert, perpetually bullied by bombastic boss General “Thunderbolt” Ross, even as the clock counts down to the World’s first Gamma Bomb test.

Besotted with Ross’s daughter Betty, Banner endures the General’s constant jibes as the timer ticks on and tension increases, but at the final moment the boffin sees a teenager lollygagging at Ground Zero. As he frantically rushes to the site to drag the boy away, unknown to all, the assistant he’s entrusted to delay the countdown has an agenda of his own…

Rick Jones is a wayward but good-hearted kid. After initial resistance he lets himself be pushed into a safety trench, but just as Banner prepares to join him The Bomb detonates…

Somehow surviving the blast, Banner and the boy are secured by soldiers, but that evening as the sun sets the scientist undergoes a monstrous transformation. He grows larger; his skin turns a stony grey…

In six simple pages that’s how it all starts, and no matter what any number of TV or movie reworkings or comicbook retcons and psycho-babble re-evaluations would have you believe that’s still the best and most primal take on the origin. A good man, an unobtainable girl, a foolish kid, an unknown enemy and the horrible power of destructive science unchecked…

Written by Stan Lee, drawn by Jack Kirby with inking by Paul Reinman, ‘The Coming of the Hulk’ barrels along as the man-monster & Jones are kidnapped by Banner’s Soviet counterpart The Gargoyle for a rousing round of espionage and Commie-busting. He soon sees the (green) light, though…

In the second issue the plot concerns invading aliens, and the Banner/Jones relationship settles into a traumatic nightly ordeal where the good doctor transforms and is locked into an escape-proof cell whilst the boy stands watch helplessly. Neither ever considers telling the government of their predicament…

‘The Terror of the Toad Men’ is formulaic but viscerally, visually captivating as Steve Ditko inks Kirby; imparting a genuinely eerie sense of unease to the artwork. Incidentally, this is the story where the Hulk inexplicably changed to his more accustomed Green persona…

Although back-written years later as a continuing mutation, the plain truth is that grey tones caused all manner of problems for production colourists so it was arbitrarily changed to the simple and more traditional colour of monsters.

The third issue presented a departure in format as chaptered epics gave way to complete short stories. Dick Ayers inked Kirby in the transitional ‘Banished to Outer Space’ which radically altered the relationship of Jones and the rage-beast, with the story thus far reprised in 3-page vignette ‘The Origin of the Hulk’. Marvel mainstay of villainy the Circus of Crime debuts at the end in ‘The Ringmaster’ whilst in #4 The Hulk goes on an urban rampage for first tale ‘The Monster and the Machine’ prior to aliens and Commies combining in second escapade ‘The Gladiator from Outer Space!’

The Incredible Hulk #5 is a joyous classic of Kirby action, introducing immortal despot Tyrannus and his underworld empire in ‘The Beauty and the Beast!’, after which those pesky Commies came in for another pasting when the Jolly Green freedom-fighter crushes the invasion of Lhasa in ‘The Hordes of General Fang!’

Lee grasped early on the commercial impact of cross-pollination and – presumably aware of disappointing sales – inserted the Green Gargantuan into his top selling title next. Fantastic Four #12 (March 1963) featured an early crossover as the team were asked to help the US army capture ‘The Incredible Hulk’: a tale from Lee, Kirby & Ayers packed with intrigue, action and bitter irony. It begins with a series of spectacularly destructive sabotage incidents putting the heroes on the trail of a monster when they should have been looking at spies… Despite the sheer verve and bravura of these simplistic classics – some of the greatest, most rewarding comics nonsense ever produced – the Hulk series was not doing well. Kirby moved on to more appreciated arenas and Steve Ditko stepped up to handle art chores for #6: another full-length epic and an extremely engaging one.

‘The Incredible Hulk Vs the Metal Master’ has astounding action, slyly subtle sub-plots and a thinking man’s resolution, but nonetheless the title died with the issue, also dated March. Another comic debuted that month and offered a lifeline to the floundering Emerald Outcast. ‘The Coming of the Avengers’ offers one of the cannier origin tales in comics. Instead of starting at a zero point and acting as if the reader knew nothing, creators Lee, Kirby & Ayers assumed interested parties had at least a passing familiarity with Marvel’s other titles, and wasted little time or energy on introductions in the premiere issue.

In Asgard Loki, god of evil, is imprisoned on a dank islet but still craves vengeance on his step-brother Thor. Observing Earth, the villain sees the monstrous Hulk and engineers a situation wherein the man-brute goes on a rampage, hoping to trick the Thunder God into battling the bludgeoning brute. When sidekick Rick Jones radios the Fantastic Four for assistance, Loki diverts the transmission so they cannot hear it and expects his mischief to quickly blossom. However, other heroes pick up the SOS – namely Iron Man, Ant-Man & the Wasp – and as the costumed champions converge on the desert in search of the Hulk, they realize something’s amiss…

This terse and compelling yarn is Lee & Kirby at their absolute best, and one of the greatest stories of the Silver Age, here promptly followed by ‘The Space Phantom’ (Lee, Kirby & Reinman): another unforgettable epic, in which an alien shape-stealer almost destroys the group from within. The tale ends with the volatile Hulk quitting the team only to return in #3 as a villain in partnership with ‘Sub-Mariner!’: a globetrotting romp delivering high energy thrills and one of the best battle scenes in comics history.

Three months later, Fantastic Four #25 featured a cataclysmic clash that had young heads spinning in 1964… and pretty much ever since. Inked by George Roussos, ‘The Hulk Vs The Thing’ and concluding saga ‘The Avengers Take Over!’ in FF #26 offered a fast-paced, all-out Battle Royale as the disgruntled man-monster comes to New York in search of sidekick Rick, with only an injury-wracked FF in the way of his destructive rampage.

A definitive moment in the character development of The Thing, the action accelerates and amplifies when a rather stiff-necked, officious Avengers team horns in claiming jurisdictional rights on “Bob” Banner and his Jaded Alter Ego. This tale is plagued with pesky continuity errors which would haunt Lee for decades, but notwithstanding the bloopers, this is one of Marvel’s key moments and still a vivid, vital read.

Over in Avengers #5, ‘The Invasion of the Lava Men!’ (Lee, Kirby & Reinman) resulted in another incredible romp as Earth’s Mightiest battled superheated, superhuman subterraneans and a lethally radioactive mutating mountain with the unwilling assistance of the Hulk. It would be his last appearance there for many months…

However, the next cameo came in Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964): an absolute milestone as a hidden criminal mastermind debuted; manipulating a Hollywood studio into making a movie about the wall-crawler. Even with guest-star opponents such as the Enforcers the Incredible Hulk steals all the limelight in ‘The Grotesque Adventure of the Green Goblin’ (Lee & Ditko) which is only otherwise notable for introducing Spider-Man’s most perfidious and flamboyant enemy (sarcasm alert!).

The second stage of the man-brute’s career was about to take off and Tales to Astonish #59 (September) offered a pulse-pounding prologue as ‘Enter: The Hulk!’ (Lee, Ayers & Reinman) sees the Avengers inadvertently provoking Giant-Man to hunt down the Green Goliath. Although The Human Top devilishly engineered that blockbusting battle, Lee was the real mastermind, as with the next issue The Hulk debuted in his own series – and on the covers – whilst Giant-Man’s adventures shrank back to a dozen or so pages.

This wonderfully economical compendium of classic wonders closes with the lead story from Journey into Mystery #112 (January 1965). ‘The Mighty Thor Battles the Incredible Hulk!’ is a glorious gift to all those fans who can’t help but ask “Who’s stronger?”

Arguably Kirby & Chic Stone’s finest artistic moment together, it details the private duel between these two super-humans that occurred during the free-for-all between Earth’s Mightiest, Sub-Mariner and Ol’ Greenskin back in Avengers #3. The sheer raw power of that tale is a perfect exemplar of what makes the Hulk work (and one that inspired that fight in the Thor: Ragnarok movie) and would be an ideal place to close proceedings.

Happily, however, fans and art lovers can enjoy further treats in the form of assorted House Ads; original artwork by Kirby & Ditko; a gallery of classic Kirby covers modified by painter Dean White (originally seen on assorted Marvel Masterworks editions) plus reproduced Essentials collection and Omnibus covers by Bruce Timm and Alex Ross…

Hulk Smash! He always was and with material like this he always will be.
© 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Today in 1923 the magnificently quirky Mike Sekowsky was born. We all know about his Justice League, Adam Strange, Metal Men and Inhumans stuff but have you seen Diana Prince, Wonder Woman volume 1?

Posted on

Fantastic Four Epic Collection volume 12: The Possession of Franklin Richards


By Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, John Byrne, Ed Hannigan, George Pérez, Peter B. Gillis, Roger Stern, Doug Moench & Bill Sienkiewicz, Steve Ditko, Tom Sutton, Keith Pollard, Al Milgrom, Joe Sinnott, Pablo Marcos, Bruce Patterson, Chic Stone, Jon D’Agostino, Mike Esposito, Jerome Moore, Frank Giacoia & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-6056-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fantastic Fun for Comics Addicts… 8/10

It’s a been a big year for the fabulous FF. Here’s another titanic tome to add to your seasonal swag list…

For Marvel everything started with The Fantastic Four.

Monolithic modern Marvel truly began with eccentric monster ‘n’ alien filled adventures of a compact superteam as much squabbling family as coolly capable costumed champions. All that Modern Marvel is, company and brand, stems from that quirky quartet and the inspired, inspirational, groundbreaking efforts of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby…

Cautiously bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961, Fantastic Four #1 – by Stan, Jack, George Klein and/or Christopher Rule – was raw and crude even by its ailing publisher’s steadily plunging standards. However, it seethed with rough, passionate, uncontrolled excitement and thrill-hungry kids pounced on its dynamic storytelling. The series caught a wave of change beginning to build in America, and every succeeding issue changed comics a little bit more… and forever. Revealed in that premier, maverick scientist Reed Richards, fiancée Sue Storm, close friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s bratty teenaged brother survived an ill-starred private spaceshot after cosmic rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

All permanently mutated: Richards’ body became elastic, diffident Sue became (even more) invisible, Johnny Storm burst into living flame and tragic Ben shockingly devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. After the initial revulsion and trauma passed, they solemnly agreed to use their abilities to benefit mankind. Thus was born The Fantastic Four – you can add your own fanfare and timpani here if you wish…

Throughout the 1960s it was the key title and most consistently groundbreaking series of Marvel’s ever-unfolding web of cosmic creation: a forge for new concepts and characters. Jack Kirby was approaching his creative peak: unleashing his vast imagination on plot after spectacular plot, and intense, incredible new characters whilst Lee scripted some of the most passionate superhero sagas ever seen. Both were on an unstoppable roll, at the height of their powers and full of the confidence only success brings, with The King particularly eager to see how far the genre and the medium could be pushed… which is rather ironic since it was the company’s reticence to give the artist more creative freedom that led to Kirby’s moving to National/DC in the 1970s.

Without Kirby’s soaring imagination the rollercoaster of mindbending High Concepts lost out to traditional tales of characters in conflict, with soap opera leanings and supervillain-heavy Fights ‘n’ Tights forays abounding. With Lee & Kirby long gone but their mark very much still stamped onto every page of the still-prestigious title, this full-colour compendium represents Fantastic Four #215-231 and Annuals #14-16, spanning Fall 1979 to June 1981.

What You Should Know: After being rejuvenated and repowered in an extended space-spanning saga, the Family FF are getting used to being back on Earth even with supervillains all over the place. Now Read On…

The revived, excessively rejuvenated team are in full fine fettle for Fantastic Four Annual #14 wherin Marv Wolfman, George Pérez & Pablo Marcos put firstborn Franklin Richards and his sorcerous nanny Agatha Harkness in the spotlight for ‘Cats-Paw!’ When magical cult Salem’s Seven abduct and brainwash the adult FF in hopes of resurrecting their macabre master Nicholas Scratch, even the Avengers are helpless to stop the carnage unleashed. Thankfully, the extra-dimensional voyage of the kid and the crone is enough to set everything right…

The arcane account is augmented by ‘A Gallery of the Fantastic Four’s Most Famous Foes!’ by Keith Pollard & Marcos, giving the lowdown on late-debuting villains and ne’er-do-wells including Invincible Man, Attuma, Gideon, Dragon Man, The Frightful Four and Quasimodo. Monthly FF #215 then finds Wolfman, John Byrne & Joe Sinnott reintroducing Negative Zone terror tyrant ‘Blastaar!’ who somehow escapes the antimatter universe to take over the Baxter Building just as a reinvigorated Reed Richards is distracted by former colleague Professor Randolph James who has hyper-evolved himself to offset an otherwise fatal beating by street thugs. Sadly, his accelerator device has not advanced James’ ethical outlook, and after taking vengeance on his attackers, the future man proves that ‘Where There Be Gods!’ there be trouble too, as the mental marvel aligns with Blastaar only to fall before a far greater power… angry cosmic child Franklin…

Bill Mantlo scripts #217 for Byrne & Sinnott, as ‘Masquerade!’ at last exposes the viper in the team’s midst: an inimical force responsible for most of the recent setbacks and accidents, and almost the deaths of the heroes and Johnny’s new intended girlfriend Dazzler…

No spoilers here this time, but back then we all just knew who the hidden villain actually was… that acursed robot!

Infernal gadget H.E.R.B.I.E. was imposed on the series due to concerns by producers of the current Fantasic Four cartoon show. Rejecting fire hazard Johnny for a cutely telegenic robot, Wolfman cheekily made that commercial compromise in-world canon, dividing fans forever after. The bleeping bot – a Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type, Integrated Electronics (latterly, Highly Engineered Robot Built for Interdimensional Exploration; don’cha just love nominative deterministic acronymics?) – is pure Marmite in most readers eyes…

Next is the last half of an old-school saga that, for completeness, means you need to read Peter Parker, the Sensational Spider-Man #42 before enjoying the contents of FF #218. What’s not here is how ESU student Peter Parker goes on a class jaunt and is lured into a trap by the Frightful Four (in ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death’ by Mantlo, Mike Zeck & Jim Mooney if you were wondering). The villains broadsided the wallcrawler after new recruit Electro impersonated the Human Torch there…

Now for ‘When a Spider-Man Comes Calling!’ (cover-dated May 1980 by Mantlo, Byrne & Sinnott), Trapster repeats the tactic to ambush the comfortably at home quartet, allowing his comrades The Wizard and Sandman to take over the heroes’ Baxter Building citadel… at least until a fighting-mad webspinner breaks free for an unstoppable counterattack…

Penciller John Byrne, having served out his first term on the series he was to soon make his alone, was officially only temporarily replaced for FF #219. Ably augmented by Sinnott, stalwart “Guest-Team” Doug Moench & Bill Sienkiewicz were parachuted in for monster mash-up ‘Leviathans’ due to the huge success and acclaim generated by their vigilante thriller Moon Knight. They brought with them a whole new look and sensibility, as well as far faster pace to the stories. Here, modern day pirate Cap’n Barracuda steals the fabled Horn of Proteus from Atlantis to unleash a wave of giant monsters on New York City. Thankfully, this is a subject the mighty Sub-Mariner and Mr. Fantastic can agree on, and their combined forces soon stomp the beasties to stop a piratical plunder ploy without peer…

Byrne bounced back writing & pencilling in #220 as ‘…And the Lights Went Out All Over the World!’ sees the Avengers call Reed and Co. when all Earth suffers a catastrophic power-outage. Science! sends the explorers to the arctic to encounter an astounding and unbelievable obelisk being constructed by beings of utterly alien appearance…

The story includes an updated origin for the quartet and guest shot for Canada’s finest (that’s Vindicator of Alpha Flight in case you were wondering) as the tale halts for a pinup by inker Sinnott (the Torch battling a flaming Skrull) prior to #221’s concluding chapter ‘Tower of Glass… Dreams of Glass!’ Following the usual misconceptions and rash clashes it is revealed that three aliens shipwrecked for half a million years just need their myriad mobile mechanisms to reverse the planet’s magnetic poles so they can return home at last. Happily, Reed has a less end-of-human-civilisation-y solution leaving everyone involved happy and safe; and back where they belong…

Now officially the regular creative team, Moench & Sienkiewicz prep for Halloween in FF #222’s ‘The Possession of Franklin Richards!’ as the cosmic ray kid is again targeted from beyond the unknown by exiled soul Nicholas Scratch. The son of Agatha Harkness is the kind of warlock who gives witchcraft a bad name. and, having made the boy his conduit back to reality, Scratch goes on to terrorise and torture his hated enemies. With Doctor Strange unavailable, they enlist the dubious gifts of self-doubting failed horror hero Gabriel the Devil Hunter and his morally ambiguous familiar Desadia (from Marvel’s monochrome magazine line titles Haunt of Horror and Monsters Unleashed)…

Apparently acquiescing, the team agree to liberate the dead diabolist’s minions of magical mayhem and Salem’s Seven toil ‘That a Child May Live…’ Of course, their instant assaults on humanity are an acceptable risk and consequence in Reed’s plan: setting the worlds to rights for all but the defeated devil…

Fantastic Four Annual #15 swiftly follows, wherein Moench & Pérez, abetted by Chic Stone, Jon D’Agostino & Mike Esposito, renew hostilities between the FF and Skrull empire as the shapeshifters target the supergenius’ latest energy-casting breakthrough in ‘Time for the Prime Ten!’ Infiltrating the Baxter Building, negating his valiant teammates and almost banishing Mr. Fantastic to the tender mercies of Annihilus in the Negative Zone, the sneaky killers are actually seeking to end their millennial war against stellar rivals The Kree, but have underestimated Reed’s brilliance, his family’s tenacity and the cosmic awareness of Earth-loving Kree Exile Captain Mar-Vell…

A back-up tale by Moench & Tom Sutton takes us to recently liberated Latveria for the opening of proposed series ‘The Return of Doctor Doom!’ Only episode ‘The Power of the People!’ shows how restored monarch King Zorba fails to live up to his democratic promises and discover how excessive taxation really upsets voters, at around the same moment crazed, catatonic Victor von Doom goes missing from the most secure dungeon in Doomstadt…

Sadly, the impending crisis never materialised and was only addressed by Byrne in Fantastic Four #247…

Over in FF #224 & 225, fresh calamity unfolds in ‘The Darkfield Illumination’ (Moench, Sienkiewicz & Pablo Marcos) as radioactive red mist blankets Manhattan and plays hob with the team’s powers. Tracing the cloud’s origin point to an icy dome in the Arctic, the FF find a lost colony of technologically advanced Vikings utterly dependent upon a mutated immortal giant. ‘The Blind God’s Tears’ supply heat, light, food materials from the outside world and immortality, but now Korgon is dying and demands the explorers save him and the people who worship him. Always eager to help, the FF strive and succeed in saving the God, only to see him betrayed by his most trusted ally. As Korgon rages madly in response, the crisis escalates as Mighty Thor arrives to investigate worshippers who have abandoned their true god for a false one…

Bruce Patterson joins Marcos inking Sienkiewicz when Moench next brings closure to fans of his Shogun Warriors series. In their own title the former pilots of monster-fighting mega-mecha Dangard Ace, Raydeen and Combatra had been recruited by an ancient order to defend humanity, but retired when their machines were destroyed. That epic sacrifice had come when evil enemy Maur-Kon targeted the Fantastic Four and attempted to kill Reed. Now a new giant mecha rampages and robs, so the teams reunite with Ilongo Savage, Richard Carson and Genji Odashu aiding the fight against ‘The Samurai Destroyer’ and the unworthy soul exploiting its power for profit….

Movie-toned terror in the heartland follows as a meteor crashes in rural Pennsylvania resort Lost Lake just as the FF head out to the Boonies for a break. Their encounter with ‘The Brain Parasites’ reverting hosts to earlier evolutionary forms is by-the-books horror fun from Moench, Sienkiewicz & Patterson, and readily fixed by little Franklin’s increasingly unreliable powers. This sets the scene for the next – Sinnott inked – issue where further tests by professional head shrinkers and brain benders unleash uncontrollable chaos, possessed bystanders and an adult super-powered version of the lad. Thankfully, loving parents and uncles allow Franklin to exorcise his deadly ‘Ego-Spawn’.

The experiment in alternative tale-telling ends with a 3-part saga opening on #229’s ‘The Thing From the Black Hole’. When it homes in on Reed’s latest invention, Earth totters on the edge of destruction as a sentient singularity made of antimatter disrupts physical laws. Desperate Richards makes contact with its cosmic equivalent and uncovers a tale of love lost in service to scientific exploration. The wandering extinction event was once a living being whose love for a fellow astronaut turned them both into creatures of uncanny forces. Thankfully, ‘Firefrost and the Ebon Seeker’ now reach an understanding that saves Earth, but as a consequence a section of Manhattan – including the Baxter Building – is left inside the Negative Zone.

With panic amongst the abducted New Yorkers barely suppressed, the FF seek a solution ‘In All the Gathered Gloom!’ (Moench & Roger Stern, Sienkienwisz, Jerome Moore, Sinnott, & Frank Giacoia) even as new antimatter menace Stygorr zeroes in on the intruding enclave. The last thing the FF need is bullying big business plutocrat Lew Shiner telling everyone his money puts him in charge. After his posturing triggers a riot, tragedy is guaranteed, and the heroes barely beat the alien invader in time to return everyone surviving back home…

This foray into the fantastic finishes on a “soft pilot episode” as Fantastic Four Annual #16 embraces the contemporary fantasy market with ‘The Coming of… Dragon Lord!’ by Ed Hannigan & Steve Ditko. When trainee Ral Dorn is framed for killing a sacred beast and hunted by former fellows in the puissant extradimensional Dragon Rider organisation, the chase ends up with him wounded. His flight, employing a multi-powered Dragon Staff, leads to a collision with an off-duty quirky quartet, celebrating a reunion on the college campus where they first encountered astouding android Dragon Man,. but the coincidence escapes everybody and the heroes leave the mystery man to the medics.

Days later the fugitive breaks into their skyscraper home and with the Staff holding the FF at bay explains his predicament. A novice lawkeeper, his dream of bonding with a dragon has been shattered by the death of his destined beast-partner, and accusations that he’s responsible. The wild story is inadvertantly backed up by a posse of Dragon Riders seeking to stop him and the intervention of Ral’s bizarre former ally Lalique. When they are driven away, it is clear to the human heroes that something is not kosher and they determine to help him. It’s obvious to Ral that his boss Dragon Lord Skagerackäkor is behind the plot but without a bonded beast what can he do? That’s why he was on campus. He had learned of former FF foe Dragon Man and decided that needs must when the devil drives…

The classic plot left all the goodies rewarded amd baddies punished and was claearly an attempt to launch a series, but…

With covers by Sinnott, Ron Wilson, Josef Rubinstein, Rich Buckler, Al Milgrom, Byrne, Pollard, Sienkienwicz, Bob McLeod & Ditko the extras here include Sinnott pinups of the whole team and Thing pinup from FF #218 & 219: Sienkievich’s rejected cover-turned-pinup as printed in #224; the entries for January in the Marvel Comics 20th Anniversary Calandar 1981 (Sienkienwicz & Sinnott) plus original art pages/covers from Byrne, Sinnott, Sienkienwicz, Marcos and Patterson, as well as original colour-guides painted by George Roussos.

Although never quite returning to the stratospheric heights of the Kirby era, this truly different collection represents a closing of the First Act for the “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine”, and palate-cleansing preparation for the second groundbreaking run by John Byrne. These extremely capable efforts are probably most welcome to dedicated superhero fans and continuity freaks like me, but will still thrill and delight casual browsers looking for an undemanding slice of graphic narrative excitement.
© 2025 MARVEL.

Today in 1858, French cartoonist Emmanuel Poiré was born. He annoyed all the right people as Caran d’Ache… and plenty of the wrong ones too. Far less controversial were Fred Harmon and screenwriter/ scripter Stephen Slesinger who launched epic cowboy strip Red Ryder this day in 1938.

Posted on

Fantastic Four Marvel Masterworks volume


By Doug Moench & Bill Sienkiewicz, John Byrne, Roger Stern, Joe Sinnott, Al Milgrom, George Pérez, Tom Sutton, Jerome Moore, Chic Stone, Jon D’Agostino, Mike Esposito, Pablo Marcos, Frank Giacoia, George Roussos, Jim Novak, Irving Watanabe & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1027-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For Marvel everything started with The Fantastic Four.

Monolithic modern Marvel truly began with eccentric monster ‘n’ alien filled adventures of a compact superteam as much squabbling family as coolly capable costumed champions. All that Modern Marvel is, company and brand, stems from that quirky quartet and the inspired, inspirational, groundbreaking efforts of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby…

Cautiously bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961, Fantastic Four #1 – by Stan, Jack, George Klein and/or Christopher Rule – was raw and crude even by the ailing publisher’s standards; but it seethed with rough, passionate, uncontrolled excitement. Thrill-hungry kids pounced on its dynamic storytelling and caught a wave of change beginning to build in America. It and every succeeding issue changed comics a little bit more… and forever. As revealed in that premier issue, maverick scientist Reed Richards, fiancée Sue Storm, close friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s bratty teen brother survived an ill-starred private spaceshot after cosmic rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

All were permanently mutated: Richards’ body became elastic, diffident Sue became (even more) invisible, Johnny Storm burst into living flame and tragic Ben shockingly devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. After the initial revulsion and trauma passed, they solemnly agreed to use their abilities to benefit mankind. Throughout the 1960s The Fantastic Four was indisputably the key title and most consistently groundbreaking series of Marvel’s ever-unfolding web of cosmic creation: a forge for new concepts and characters.

Kirby was approaching his creative peak: unleashing his vast imagination on plot after spectacular plot, and intense, incredible new characters whilst Lee scripted some of the most passionate superhero sagas ever seen. Both were on an unstoppable roll, at the height of their powers and full of the confidence only success brings, with The King particularly eager to see how far the genre and the medium could be pushed… which is rather ironic since it was the company’s reticence to give the artist more creative freedom that led to Kirby’s moving to National/DC in the 1970s.

Without Kirby’s soaring imagination the rollercoaster of mindbending High Concepts lost out to traditional tales of characters in conflict, with soap opera leanings and supervillain-heavy Fights ‘n’ Tights forays abounding. With Lee & Kirby long gone but their mark very much still stamped onto every page of the still-prestigious title, this full-colour luxury compendium collects Fantastic Four #219-231 and Annual #15, spanning June 1980-June 1981, wherein editor Jim Salicrup sanctioned a bold new look and direction for the Hallowed team. The call for and upshot of all that is discussed by incoming writer Doug Moench who recalls fan-fright paralysis and jumping in full throttle in his Introduction ‘The Big-Kid Stuff Cold Turkey Fail’ prior to a distinctly spookily toned and frequently supernaturally themed change of pace commencing.

What You Should Know: After being rejuvenated and repowered in an extended space-spanning saga, the Family FF are getting used to being back on earth even with supervillains all over the place. Now Read On…

Penciller John Byrne, having served out his first term of duty on the series he was to soon make his alone was officially and ostensibly only temporarily replaced for FF #219. Ably augmented by Joe Sinnott, stalwart “Guest-Team” Doug Moench & Bill Sienkiewicz were parachuted in for monster mash-up ‘Leviathans’, on the back of huge success and acclaim for their vigilante thriller Moon Knight, bringing with them a whole new look and sensibility, as well as far faster pace to the stories.

Here, modern day pirate Cap’n Barracuda steal the fabled Horn of Proteus from Atlantis and unleashes a wave of giant monsters on New York City. Thankfully, this is a subject the mighty Sub-Mariner and Mr. Fantastic can agree on and their combined forces are soon stomping beasties and taking names (like Giganto!) to restore order and stop a piratical plunder ploy without peer…

Byrne was back writing & pencilling in #220 as ‘…And the Lights Went Out All Over the World!’ sees the Avengers call in Reed and his team when all of Earth suffers a catastrophic power-outage. Science! soon sends the explorers to the arctic where they encounter an astounding and unbelievable obelisk being constructed by beings of utterly alien appearance…

The story includes an updated origin for the quartet and guest shot for Canada’s finest (that’s Vindicator of Alpha Flight in case you were wondering) and the issue halts with a pinup/possible rejected cover by inker Sinnott (the Torch battling a flaming Skrull) before #221’s concluding chapter ‘Tower of Glass… Dreams of Glass!’ – after the usual misconceptions and rash clashes reveal three aliens shipwrecked for half a million years who just need their myriad mobile mechanisms to reverse the planet’s magnetic poles so that they can return home at last. Thankfully, Reed has a less end of human civilisation-y solution that leaves everyone involved happy and safe…

Now officially the latest regular creative team, Moench & Sienkiewicz return to prep for Halloween in FF #222’s ‘The Possession of Franklin Richards!’ as the kid is targeted from beyond the unknown by the exiled soul of Nicholas Scratch, son of Agatha Harkness and the kind of warlock who gives witchcraft a bad name. Having made the boy his conduit back to reality, Scratch terrorises and tortures his hated enemies, who with Doctor Strange unavailable, must call on the dubious gifts of self-doubting failed horror hero Gabriel the Devil Hunter and his sexy morally ambiguous familiar Desadia (as mostly seen in the Marvel monochrome magazine line such as Haunt of Horror and Monsters Unleashed).

Apparently acquiescing, the team agree to liberate the dead diabolist’s minions of magical cult Salem’s Seven in ‘That a Child May Live…’ but their instant assaults on humanity are an acceptable risk and consequence in a long plan that sets the worlds to rights for all but the defeated devil…

Fantastic Four Annual #15 swiftly follows, wherein Moench & George Pérez, abetted by Chic Stone, Jon D’Agostino & Mike Esposito, renew hostilities between the FF and the Skrull empire when the shapeshifters target Reed’s latest energy-casting breakthrough in ‘Time for the Prime Ten!’ Infiltrating the Baxter Building, negating his teammates and almost banishing Mr. Fantastic to the tender mercies of Annihilus in the Negative Zone, the sneaky killers are actually seeking to end their millennial war against stellar rivals The Kree, but have underestimated Reed’s brilliance, his team’s tenacity and the sheer power and cosmic awareness of Earth-loving Kree Exile Captain Mar-Vell…

A back-up tale by Moench & Tom Sutton takes us to recently liberated Latveria for the opening of proposed series ‘The Return of Doctor Doom!’ with only episode ‘The Power of the People!’ showing how restored monarch King Zorba failing to live up to his democratic promise and discovering how excessive taxation really upsets subjects, at around the same moment crazed and catatonic Victor von Doom goes missing from the most secure dungeon in Doomstadt…

Sadly, the impending crisis never materialised and was only addressed by John Byrne in Fantastic Four #247…

Over in FF #224 & 225, fresh calamity unfolds in Moench, Sienkiewicz & Pablo Marcos’ ‘The Darkfield Illumination’ as an eerie radioactive red mist blankets Manhattan and plays hob with the team’s powers. Tracing the cloud’s origin point to an icy dome in the Arctic, the FF discover a lost colony of technologically advanced Vikings utterly dependent upon a mutated immortal giant. ‘The Blind God’s Tears’ supply heat, light, food materials from the outside world and immortality, but now Korgon is dying and demands the explorers save him and the people who worship him…

Always eager to help, the team strive hard and succeed in saving the God, only to see him betrayed by his most trusted ally. As Korgon rages madly in response, the situation escalates as Thor arrives to investigate Viking worshippers who have abandoned their true god for a false one…

Bruce Patterson joins Marcos inking Sienkiewicz as Moench takes the opportunity to bring closure to fans of his old Shogun Warriors series next. In their own title the former pilots of monster-fighting mega-mecha Dangard Ace, Raydeen and Combatra had been recruited by an ancient order to defend humanity, but had ultimately retired when their machines were destroyed. That epic sacrifice had come when evil enemy Maur-Kon had targeted the Fantastic Four and attempted to kill Reed.

Now a new giant mecha rampages and robs and the teams reunite with Ilongo Savage, Richard Carson and Genji Odashu aiding the battle against ‘The Samurai Destroyer’ and the unworthy soul exploiting its power for profit….

Movie-toned terror in the heartland follows as a meteor crashes in rural Pennsylvania resort Lost Lake just as the FF head out to the Boonies for a break. Their encounter with ‘The Brain Parasites’ infesting hosts and reverting them to earlier evolutionary forms is by-the-books horror fun from Moench, Sienkiewicz & Patterson, and readily fixed by little Franklin’s unreliable mental powers. This sets the scene for the next issue where further tests by professional head shrinkers and brain benders only unleash uncontrollable chaos, possessing bystanders and an adult super-powered version of the lad. Thankfully loving parents and uncles allow Franklin to exorcise his deadly ‘Ego-Spawn’ (Sinnott inks)…

The experiment in alternative tale-telling ends on a 3-part saga that opens with #229’s ‘The Thing From the Black Hole’. After it homes in on Reed’s latest invention, Earth soon totters on the edge of destruction as a living, sentient singularity made of antimatter disrupts physical laws. Desperate Richards makes contact with its cosmic equivalent and uncovers a tale of love lost in service to scientific exploration. The mobile extinction event was once a sentient being whose love for a fellow astronaut turned them both into creatures of uncanny forces. Thankfully ‘Firefrost and the Ebon Seeker’ reach an understanding that saves the world, but as a consequence a section of Manhattan – including the Baxter Building – is marooned inside the Negative Zone.

With panic amongst the hordes of abducted New Yorkers barely suppressed, the FF search for a solution ‘In All the Gathered Gloom!’ (by Moench & Roger Stern with art from Sienkienwisz, Jerome Moore, Sinnott, & Frank Giacoia) even as new antimatter menace Stygorr zeroes in on the intruding enclave. The last thing the FF need is bullying big business plutocrat Lew Shiner telling everyone his money puts him in charge. After his posturing triggers a riot, tragedy is guaranteed, and the heroes barely beat the alien invader in time to return everyone surviving back home…

With covers by Sienkienwicz, Byrne Sinnott & Bob McLeod, the extras here include a Sinnott Thing pinup from FF #219, Sienkievich’s rejected cover-turned-pinup as printed in #224 original art pages/covers inked by Marcos, Bruce Patterson, Sinnott, and original colour-guides painted by George Roussos.

Although never quite returning to the stratospheric heights of the Kirby era, this truly different collection represents a closing of the First Act for the “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine”, and palate cleansing preparation for the second groundbreaking run by an inspired John Byrne. These extremely capable efforts are probably most welcome to dedicated superhero fans and continuity freaks like me, but will still thrill and delight casual browsers looking for an undemanding slice of graphic narrative excitement – especially if this time the movie continues to deliver on its promise…
© 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

To Be Continued…

Today in 1918 artist John Forte was born. He’s most fondly remembered for costumed charm, as best seen in Legion of Super-Heroes: The Silver Age volume 1 . We don’t have nearly enough collected material for UK visionary comics stalwart Ron Embleton who was born today in 1930. If you think you’re old enough, you could look at Oh, Wicked Wanda!.

Indomitable weekly anthology Valiant began its stellar 712 issue run today in 1962. Inside was the magnificent Steel Claw whom we comprehensively covered in The Steel Claw: Invisible Man. Yes. Well done, the modern invisible man could be seen from the start…

Posted on

Marvel Two-In-One Masterworks volume 8


By Tom DeFalco, David Anthony Kraft, Jan Strnad, John Byrne, Doug Moench, Ron Wilson, Alan Kupperberg, Chic Stone, Jim Mooney, Jon D’Agostino, “A. Sorted” & various (MARVEL)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Above all else, Marvel has always been about team-ups. The concept of an established star pairing, or battling (often both) with less well-selling company characters was not new when Marvel awarded their most popular hero the same deal DC had with Batman in The Brave and the Bold since the early 1960s. Although confident in their new title, they wisely left options open by allocating an occasional substitute lead in The Human Torch. In those distant days, editors were acutely conscious of potential over-exposure – and as superheroes were actually in a sales decline, they might well have been right.

Nevertheless, after the runaway success of Spider-Man’s guest vehicle Marvel Team-Up, the House of Ideas ran with the trend with a series starring bashful, blue-eyed Ben Grimm – the Fantastic Four’s most popular character. They began with a brace of test runs in Marvel Feature #11-12 before awarding him his own team-up title, with this 8th rousing & rowdy round-up gathering the contents of Marvel Two-In-One #83-93 covering January 1980 through November 1982.

Preceded by another comprehensive, informative contextual reverie via editor Jim Salicrup’s Introduction ‘It’s Introducin’ Time or Two Marvel Introductions in One!’, a late-running annual event anachronistically opens the fun. Although released in summer 1980, steadfast stalwarts Tom DeFalco, Ron Wilson & Chic Stone counter the perennial problem of team-up tales – a lack of continuity (something Marvel always prided itself upon) – by returning to an extended subplot.

Previously Bill (Giant-Man) Foster had entered the final stages of his lingering death from radiation exposure, before a combination of heroes and villains had found a potential solution. Their success leads here to supergenius Reed Richards taking over Foster’s treatment, resulting in the Thing heading north in #83 to ‘Where Stalks the Sasquatch!’

The most monstrous member of Alpha Flight is actually radiation researcher Dr. Walter Langkowski, but his impromptu medical consultation obliquely leads to the release of malign Native American spirit Ranark the Ravager and a Battle Royale which quickly escalates to include the entire team in ‘Cry for Beloved Canada!’

‘The Final Fate of Giant-Man!’ came in Marvel Two-In-One #85 wherein Spider-Woman joined the Thing to tackle Foster’s arch-nemesis Atom-Smasher, after which ‘Time Runs Like Sand!’ offered an astoundingly low key landmark as Ben and the sinister Sandman had a few bevvies in a bar and turned the felon’s life around. Also included was a short, sharp comedy vignette wherein Ben and godson Franklin Richards deal with a bored Impossible Man and his equally obnoxious kids in ‘Farewell, My Lummox!’…

When Ben is kidnapped in #87, the FF call in Ant-Man Scott Lang who helps our rocky rogue defeat a duplicitous queen in the ‘Menace of the Microworld!’ after which David Anthony Kraft & Alan Kupperberg join inker Chic Stone in detailing a ‘Disaster at Diablo Reactor!’, with Ben and the Savage She-Hulk countering the nefarious Negator’s plans to turn Los Angeles into a cloud of radioactive vapour…

They then pit Ben and gadfly buddy the Human Torch against deranged demagogues seeking to stamp out extremes of beauty, ugliness, weakness and strength in ‘The Last Word!’ before Jan Strnad, Kupperberg & Jim Mooney pit Spider-Man and big Ben against time-bending chaos in ‘Eyes of the Sorcerer’. A new extended epic opened as DeFalco, Wilson & Jon D’Agostino reveal what lurks in ‘In the Shadow of the Sphinx!’ When mystic master Doctor Strange asks the thing to investigate a vision of Egypt, the bold battler falls into the clutches of immortal wizard The Sphinx who obsessively seeks to recover his power-providing Ka-stone. On the voyage back home after beating the bad guy, Ben encounters robotic Avenger Jocasta, but not in time to stop her helplessly reviving Ultron who has foresightedly pre-programmed the benighted mechanoid in DeFalco, Wilson & “A. Sorted” inkers’ ‘This Evil Returning…!’

When handmade hero Machine Man and his human assistants insert themselves into the crisis, they unexpectedly score a narrow win, but not before ‘And One Shall Die…!’

Closing with an original art gallery featuring pages and covers by Wilson, Stone, Al Milgrom, Kupperberg, Mooney, & “A. Sorted”, this penultimate character cohort compendium is packed with simple, straightforward Fights ‘n’ Tights meet, greet & defeat episodes: entertaining and exciting with no hint of pretension and no need to swot up on superfluous backstory.

Even if artistically the work varies from only adequate to truly top-notch, most fans of Costumed Dramas will find little to complain about and there’s plenty of fun to be found for young and old readers. So why not lower your critical guard and have an honest blast of pure warts-and-all comics craziness? You’ll almost certainly grow to like it…
© 2025 MARVEL.

Today in 1938 Jean-Claude Mézières was born. Have you seen his Valerian: The Complete Collection volume 1?

In 1956, the much-missed Peter David arrived. If you check out Star Trek Classics volume 5: Who Killed Captain Kirk? you’ll see that he left us far too soon.

Today in 1967 IPC (International Publishing Company) launched upscale UK girls comic Princess Tina.

Crucially, today is my 30-somethingth wedding anniversary. Hah! Can’t call me forgetful anymore! Rather surprised “Hi!” to anybody at the ceremony who is still alive after the last 36 years!

Posted on

Uncanny X-Men Marvel Masterworks volume 1


By Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Bill Mantlo, Dave Cockrum, Bob McLeod, Sam Grainger, Frank Chiaramonte & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3702-3 (TPB) 978-0-7851-1192-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Timeless Mutant Masterpieces for all Blockbuster Comics Addicts… 9/10

In the autumn of 1963 The X-Men #1 introduced Scott (Cyclops) Summers, Bobby (Iceman) Drake, Warren (Angel) Worthington, Jean (Marvel Girl) Grey and Hank (The Beast) McCoy: very special students of Professor Charles Xavier. The teacher was a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race of mutants dubbed Homo Superior; considered by many who knew him as a living saint.

After nearly eight years of eccentrically spectacular adventures the mutant misfits virtually disappeared at the beginning of 1970, during another periodic downturn in superhero comics sales. Just like the closing years of the 1940s, mystery men again faded away as supernatural mysteries and traditional genre themes once more dominated the world’s entertainment fields.

Although their title returned at the end of the year as a cheap reprint vehicle, the missing mutants were reduced to guest-stars and bit-players throughout the ongoing Marvel universe, whilst the bludgeoning Beast was opportunistically transformed into a scary monster to cash in on the horror boom. Then, as sales of the spooky stuff subsequently waned in 1975, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas green-lighted a bold one-shot as part of the company’s line of Giant-Size specials and history was made…

This fabulous compendium collection (available in luxurious hardcover, trade paperback and eBook editions) is perfect for newbies, neophytes and even old lags nervous about reading such splendid yarns on fragile but extremely valuable pulp paper. It celebrates the revival and unstoppable march to market dominance through the exuberant and pivotal early stories: specifically, collectively and cumulatively spanning May 1975 to August 1976 via Giant Size X-Men #1, and issues #94-100 of the definitely “All-New, All-Different” X-Men.

Tracing the reinvigorated merry mutants from young, fresh and delightfully underexposed innovations to the beginnings of their unstoppable ascendancy to ultimate comic book icons, in their own title and through an increasingly broad clutch of guest shots, the epic voyage begins with a classic mystery monster mash from Giant Size X-Men #1.

Len Wein & Dave Cockrum (the much-missed latter then a very red-hot property following his stint reviving DC’s equally eclectic fan-fave super-team Legion of Super-Heroes) detail in ‘Second Genesis!’ how the original squad -all but then-new Avengers recruit The Beast – have been lost in action. With no other choice Xavier is forced to scour Earth and the Marvel Universe for replacements…

To occasional foes-turned-friends Banshee and Sunfire is added a one-shot Incredible Hulk adversary dubbed The Wolverine, but the bulk of time and attention is lavished upon original creations Kurt Wagner, a demonic-seeming German teleporter codenamed Nightcrawler; African weather “goddess” Ororo Monroe – AKA Storm; Russian farm boy Peter Rasputin who turns into a living steel Colossus and bitter, disillusioned Apache superman John Proudstar who is cajoled into joining the makeshift squad as Thunderbird. The second epic introductory chapter ‘….And Then There Was One!’ reintroduces battered, depleted but unbowed team-leader Cyclops who swiftly drills the newcomers to a semblance of readiness before leading them into primordial danger against monolithic threat ‘Krakoa… the Island That Walks Like a Man!’

Overcoming the phenomenal terror of a rampaging rapacious mutant eco-system and rescuing the “real” team should have led to a quarterly Giant-Size sequel, but so great was fan response that the follow-up adventure was swiftly reworked into a 2-issue tale for a rapidly reconfigured comic book which became a bimonthly home to the new team. X-Men #94 (August 1975) began ‘The Doomsmith Scenario!’ – plotted by editor Wein, scripted by Chris Claremont and with Bob McLeod inking man-on-fire Cockrum – in a smart Armageddon-thriller with a newly pared-down strike-squad deprived of Sunfire and still-recuperating Marvel Girl, Angel, Iceman, Havok (Scott’s brother Alex) and magnetic Lorna Dane.

The neophytes are called in by Beast to stop criminal terrorist Count Nefaria starting an atomic war. The insidious mastermind has seized control of the US Norad citadel with a gang of artificial superhumans and accidentally escalated a nuclear blackmail scheme into an inescapable countdown to holocaust. Thus, the untrained, unprepared mutants are the only hope of saving the world in epic conclusion ‘Warhunt!’ (inked by Sam Grainger).

One of the new team doesn’t make it back…

X-Men #96 saw Claremont take full charge of the writing (albeit with plotting input from Bill Mantlo) for ‘Night of the Demon!’ Here, guilt-wracked Cyclops blames himself for the loss of his teammate, and in his explosive rage accidentally unleashes a demonic antediluvian horror from Earth’s primordial prehistory for the heroes-in-training to thrash. The infernal Nagarai would periodically return to bedevil mankind, but the biggest innovation in this issue was the introduction of gun-toting biologist/housekeeper Moira MacTaggert and the first inklings of the return of implacable old adversaries…

A long-running, cosmically-widescreen storyline began in #97 with ‘My Brother, My Enemy!’ as Xavier – tormented by visions of interstellar war – tries to take a vacation, just as Havok and Lorna (finally settling on superhero nom de guerre Polaris) attack: apparently willing servants of a mysterious madman using Cyclops’ old undercover alter ego Eric the Red. The devastating conflict segues into a spectacular 3-part yarn, as pitiless robotic killers return under the hate-filled auspices of mutant-phobic Steven Lang (and his mysterious backers in Project Armageddon). The action opens with #98’s ‘Merry Christmas, X-Men… the Sentinels Have Returned!’…

With coordinated attacks capturing semi-retired Marvel Girl plus Wolverine, Banshee and Xavier, Cyclops and the remaining mutant heroes co-opt a space shuttle and storm Lang’s orbital HQ to rescue them in ‘Deathstar Rising!’ (inked by Frank Chiaramonte): another phenomenal all-action episode. The saga concludes on an agonising cliffhanger with the 100th issue anniversary tale. ‘Greater Love Hath No X-Man…’ (with Cockrum inking his own pencils) sees new X-Men apparently battle the original team before overturning Lang’s monstrous schemes forever. However, their catastrophic clash destroys the only means of escape and, as a gigantic solar flare threatens to eradicate the satellite-station, their only chance of survival means certain death for another X-Man…

To Be Continued…

With even greater excitement and innovation to follow in succeeding issues, these superb comics classics revolutionised a moribund genre and led directly to today’s ubiquitous popular cultural landscape where superheroes are as common as cops, cowboys, monsters or rom-com Romeos. They even made it into movies without looking ridiculous…

Extras include an introduction by Claremont; issue covers by Gil Kane, Cockrum, Marie Severin, Sal Buscema & Rich Buckler; Kane’s cover for eventual all-reprint Giant-Size X-Men #2; Cockrum’s designs for The Outsiders (a Legion of Super-Heroes 5-page spin-off pitch rejected by DC); character designs for Phoenix, Colossus & Nightcrawler; the cover to F.O.O.M.  #10 and caricatures of the X-Men creative team by Marie Severin; House ads and original art pages, roughs and covers by Kane & Cockrum completing the perfect primer/introduction to the New X-Men phenomenon.

The immortal epics compiled here are available in numerous formats but for a selection that will survive the continual re-readings of the serious, incurable fan there’s nothing to beat the sturdy and substantial full-colour feel of these Marvellous Masterwork editions.
© 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection volume 11: Nine Lives Has the Black Cat (1978-1980)


By Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Roger Stern, David Michelinie, Jim Starlin, Keith Pollard, John Byrne, Rich Buckler, Sal Buscema, Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney, Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Terry Austin, Gene Day, Pablo Marcos, Bob McLeod, Frank Springer, Marie Severin, Alan Kupperberg & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5641-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Spectacular Seasonal Spider Sensationalism … 8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Peter Parker was a smart yet alienated kid when he was bitten by a radioactive spider during a school science trip. Developing astonishing arachnid abilities – which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius – the boy did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do with such newfound prowess: he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor media celebrity – and a criminally self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night, the cocky teen didn’t lift a finger to stop him. When Parker returned home he learned that his beloved guardian uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazed with a need for vengeance, Peter hunted the assailant who had made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, finding, to his horror, that it was the self-same felon he had neglected to stop. His irresponsibility had resulted in the death of the man who raised him, and the traumatised boy swore to forevermore use his powers to help others…

Since that night he has tirelessly battled miscreants, monsters and madmen, with a fickle, ungrateful public usually baying for his blood even as he perpetually saves them, and by the time of the tales in this full-colour compendium of web-spinning adventures the wondrous wallcrawler was a global figure and prime contender for the title of the World’s Most Misunderstood Hero. Spanning November 1978 to July 1980, chronologically re-presenting Amazing Spider-Man #186-206, Annual #13 & Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #1 the transformative tales are an attempt to reconcile the tragic, ill-fated young man with the changing world of the fast-approaching, take-no-prisoners 1980s; and regrettably they don’t always succeed in our hindsight-equipped 21st century eyes…

Previously: old girlfriend and current neurotic stranger Betty Brant-Leeds returned after fleeing a dying marriage. She was absorbed with nostalgic notions to rekindle old flames with first love Peter Parker, but that mature-&-moved-on, almost-college-graduate’s social life was already deeply out of control. For his arachnid alter ego life involved constant attacks especially from increasing out-of-whack J. Jonah Jameson who funds yet another fringe science secret scheme to trap Spider-Man…

At this time a star of (1970s) television, the webslinger’s adventures were downplaying traditional fantasy elements as Keith Pollard became penciller for #186. Now, ‘Chaos is… the Chameleon!’ sees the devious disguise artist seeking to discredit the webslinger, even as District Attorney Blake Tower works to dismiss all charges against him, and is followed by a moody tale of lockdowns and plague as Spider-Man and Captain America unite to stop a voltaic villain inadvertently using ‘The Power of Electro!’ (Marv Wolfman, Jim Starlin & Bob McLeod) to trigger a biological time bomb…

Ruthlessly violent thugs are on the rampage next as ASM #188 depicts ‘The Jigsaw is Up!’ (illustrated by Pollard & Mike Esposito) after the river party cruise Peter, his pals and increasingly insistent Betty are enjoying is hijacked. Jameson’s secret then gets out to inflict ‘Mayhem by Moonlight!’ in a sharp two-part shocker limned by John Byrne & Jim Mooney. Exploited by malign and dying science rogue Spencer Smythe, Jonah is abducted by his own monster-marked son John leaving the wallcrawler ‘In Search of the Man-Wolf!’ Forced to witness the (presumed) death of his child at his worst enemy’s hands leads to a savage confrontation with Smythe’s Spider-Slayer robots in ‘Wanted for Murder: Spider-Man!’ (#191 by Pollard & Esposito) before all Jonah’s debts are paid and another death results after Spidey & Jonah are bound to the same bomb and given ‘24 hours Till Doomsday!’ …

Eluding doom by the skin of their shackled wrists, a new phase in the Jonah’s psychotic enmity begins in ASM #193’s ‘The Wings of the Fearsome Fly!’ with Wolfman, penciller Keith Pollard and inker Jim Mooney recapping how would-be Spider-Slayer Spencer Smythe had handcuffed JJJ to his despised bête noir Spider-Man in an explosive deathtrap and how that drew mutual old enemy The Fly as well as causing the death of John Jameson in his monster form of the ferociously feral Man-Wolf…

Peter is most disturbed by a half-remembered moment. In that clash Jonah might have peeked under the arachnid’s mask whilst the wallcrawler was briefly unconscious, and not knowing is driving Parker crazy. The loss of his son has absolutely unhinged the publisher, however, and, after firing Peter, Jonah swears to destroy Spider-Man, even as Peter dutifully hunts down the Fly. He finally finds him robbing the Metropolitan Museum of Art and succumbs to an opportunity to release his pent-up anger. It ends badly…

In the aftermath, another plot strand resurfaces as Ned Leeds show up and punches Parker out. The incensed reporter thinks its justifiable as his (recently estranged) wife Betty has been nostalgically and aggressively pursuing old flame Peter. Meanwhile at May Parker’s empty house, a strangely familiar figure is tearing walls down hunting for something. After eventually giving up, he moves on to the Restwell Nursing Home where the widow Parker currently resides… and finds a situation he can readily exploit…

With life in turmoil Peter is poorly prepared for the major change that begins in #194, painfully learning ‘Never Let the Black Cat Cross Your Path!’ after encountering a svelte femme fatale costumed jewel thief with luck always on her side. However, she seems to have forsaken profit for a new, darker agenda. Inked by Frank Giacoia, the tale sees her recruit a crew to break someone out of jail, and – despite an obvious (and mutual) attraction to sexy Spidey – she will let nothing stop her…

Now working as a photographer for rival paper the Daily Globe where he immediately sparks the curiosity of reporter April Maye, Peter continues to pursue the feline felon in a chase to disaster, quickly realising ‘Nine Lives Has the Black Cat!’ (collectively inked by “M. Hands” Mooney, Mike Esposito & Al Milgrom). This affords an origin for the curvaceous crook and culminates in shocking news for Peter…

I’d normally give lip service here to “spoilers” and indeed back then, the death of Aunt May was – for a brief moment – a big deal, but it wasn’t real and didn’t last long. In-world though, Peter is crushed by the loss of his last relative and only family, with ‘Requiem!’ – limned by Milgrom, Mooney & Frank Giacoia – seeing him shattered by her “peaceful passing” whilst he was elsewhere, and at this moment still blithely unaware of a plot by unctuous home director Dr. Rinehart. Many older fans had already clocked who he really was…

Dazed and reeling, the hero is just starting to suspect something isn’t right as he’s ambushed by thugs and dragged to ‘The Kingpin’s Midnight Massacre!’ in ASM #197. Here Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney show the soon-to-be-retired crime lord packing to leave and up against an immovable deadline. To please his beloved wife Vanessa, the villain will cease his illegal activities at the witching hour. All that’s left on his to-do list is to kill Spider-Man, but the clock’s ticking and the wallcrawler just won’t die…

Building up to the anniversary spectacular and illustrated by Sal Buscema & Mooney, most dangling plot threads start cleaving together when Peter realises who Rinehart actually is and bursts into the Restwell Home in ‘Mysterio is Deadlier by the Dozen!’ to find the master of illusion preying on sundowning oldsters and teamed up with the burglar who shot Uncle Ben. Out of jail and desperate to retrieve something long hidden in the Parker house, the long-discarded thug has hijacked Mysterio’s comfortably risk-free scam and attracted the wrath of a really, really angry Spider-Man…

Despite fighting back fiercely in ‘Now You See Me! Now You Die!’ the writing is truly on the wall for the now-at-odds bad guys who meet their fates in The Amazing Spider-Man #200’s extra-length conclusion ‘The Spider and the Burglar… A Sequel!’ – cover dated January 1980 and courtesy of Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney.

With the truth out and May restored, Peter is ready for whatever the future holds as we segue into The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #13 where Wolfman, Byrne & Terry Austin occupy ‘The Arms of Doctor Octopus’ with a murderous scheme to regain his underworld reputation and dominance. The plot is brought to Spider-Man’s attention by murdered federal agent Kent Blake, who blackmails the hero into going undercover in the gang to recover stolen plans and ends with a catastrophic clash that sees the villain maimed…

Although momentarily defeated, Ock isn’t finished with New York or Spider-Man, and the saga continues and concludes in the first annual of a companion Spider-title. Before that, though, Annual traditions are upheld by additions to ongoing feature ‘A Gallery of Spider-Man’s Most Famous Foes’. Rendered by Pollard, the roster expands for The Molten Man, The Looter, The Rhino, The Shocker, The Kingpin, Silverman and Man-Mountain Marko, The Prowler and The Kangaroo before ending on ‘A Mighty Marvel Bonus’ offering updated locations and floorplans for ‘Peter Parker’s Pad!’, The Daily Bugle & Daily Globe offices and Empire State University Campus – and Peter’s colleagues.

The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #1 details the denouement in ‘And Men Shall Call Him… Octopus!’ as Bill Mantlo, Rich Buckler & Mooney follow a furious and confused webslinger who uses Ock’s severed metal tentacle to lure the near-insane-with-pain-&-shock villain into a cataclysmic showdown aboard a ship’s graveyard in the East River and apparently final clash in an undersea base…

Dried out and back to business basics, the hero’s journey resumes in ASM 201’s ‘Man-Hunt!’ as Wolfman, Pollard & Mooney reunite the hero with The Punisher, whose hunt for a gang boss turns up a suspicious connection between photo seller Parker and his star subject Spider-Man…

Further muddying the waters is the latest woe to befall Jonah, whose nervous collapse devolves into pure mania, prompting his escape into delusion and the city’s back alleys. Guilt-ridden Parker can’t do much for his favourite gadfly, but can send Frank Castle on an identity-saving wild goose chase, before helping to deal with his latest target in concluding chapter ‘One For Those Long Gone!’

More infomercial than adventure – and probably a deadline-busting fill-in – Amazing Spider-Man #203 is one huge plug for Marvel’s disco sensation as Wolfman, Pollard, Esposito & Friends introduce Spider-Man to mutant musician Dazzler. The siren songstress is being hunted by old arachnid foe Lightmaster who needs her energies to bust him free of the light dimension that holds him captive but fails again in ‘Bewitched, Bothered and B-Dazzled!’

Another strong independent woman (re)appears in Pablo Marcos inked #204, as Wolfman signs off with ‘The Black Cat Always Lands on her Feet!’ Here the presumed-dead super thief returns to steal a selection of romance-themed art, and Spidey’s pursuit is the bandit’s actual goal. As seen in #205’s David Michelinie, Pollard & Mooney conclusion ‘…In Love and War!’, second generation purloiner Felicia Hardy has become fixated on the enigmatic masked man and stealing these items is her way of wooing the wallcrawler. Just for a change, this is a challenge requiring Parker’s mind and empathy, not Spider-Man’s might…

With an increasingly angry and unstable Joe Robertson replacing a lost amnesiac Jameson at the Daily Bugle, ASM #206 sees Roger Stern, John Byrne & Gene Day resolve the saga of his breakdown in closing inclusion ‘A Method in his Madness!’ Here it’s revealed that rogue scientist Dr. Jonas Harrow (who remade sundry second-rate thugs into super-foes like Will-O’the-Wisp, Kangaroo and Hammerhead) had turned the publisher’s office into a testing ground for his fringe science. Now that his Mental Attitude-Response Variator ray has driven Jonah to the edge of madness, Harrow plans to turn it on Spider-Man himself, but one last test on the entire Bugle staff gives our hero a heads-up and leads to the devil doctor’s defeat…

With covers throughout from Milgrom, Pollard, John Romita Sr., Buckler, McLeod & Josef Rubinstein, this tome also offers a selection of original art by Pollard with Mooney, Frank Giacoia and Byrne & Austin; Carmine Infantino & Steve Leialoha’s unused cover to Spider-Woman #9 where Wolfman originally intended Black Cat to debut, and Dave Cockrum’s revamped design for her as well as an unused Pollard & McLeod cover for ASM #194 and Cockrum’s rough for the cover they finally used. Completing the extras are House ads for forthcoming landmark ASM #200.

These yarns confirmed Spider-Man’s growth into a global multi-media brand. Blending cultural veracity with superb art, and making a dramatic virtue of the awkwardness, confusion and imputed powerlessness most of the readership experienced daily, resulted in an irresistibly intoxicating read, especially when delivered in addictive soap-styled instalments, but none of that would be relevant if Spider-Man’s stories weren’t so utterly entertaining. This action-packed collection relives many momentous and crucial periods in the wallcrawler’s astounding life and is one all Fights ‘n’ Tights fanatics must see…
© 2025 MARVEL.

Posted on

Fantastic Four Epic Collection volume 11: Four No More (1978-1980)


By Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Len Wein, Keith Pollard, Roger Slifer, John Byrne, Sal Buscema, George Pérez, Bob Hall, John Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Pablo Marcos, Bob Wiacek, Dave Hunt, Diverse Hands (Al Milgrom, Frank Giacoia, Frank Springer, Marie Severin), Bob Budiansky, Jack Kirby & various (MARVEL
ISBN: 978-1-3029-6055-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content from less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Utter Acme of All-Ages Adventure… 8/10

For Marvel everything started with The Fantastic Four.

Monolithic modern Marvel truly began with the eccentric monster ‘n’ alien filled adventures of a compact superteam as much squabbling family as coolly capable costumed champions. Everything the company and brand is now stems from that quirky quartet and the inspired, inspirational, groundbreaking efforts of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby…

Cautiously bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961, Fantastic Four #1 – by Stan, Jack, George Klein & Christopher Rule – was raw and crude even by the ailing outfit’s standards; but it seethed with rough, passionate, uncontrolled excitement. Thrill-hungry kids pounced on its dynamic storytelling and caught a wave of change beginning to build in America. It and every succeeding issue changed comics a little bit more… and forever. As seen in the premier issue, maverick scientist Reed Richards, his fiancée Sue Storm, their close friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s bratty teenaged brother survived an ill-starred private spaceshot after cosmic rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

All four were permanently mutated: Richards’ body became elastic, diffident Sue became (even more) invisible, Johnny Storm burst into sentient living flame and poor tragic Ben shockingly devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. After initial revulsion and trauma passed, they solemnly agreed to use their abilities to benefit mankind. Thus was born The Fantastic Four.

Throughout the 1960s it was indisputably the key title and most consistently groundbreaking series of Marvel’s ever-unfolding web of cosmic creation: a forge for new concepts and characters. Kirby was approaching his creative peak: unleashing his vast imagination on plot after spectacular plot, and intense, incredible new characters whilst Lee scripted some of the most passionate superhero sagas ever seen. Both were on an unstoppable roll, at the height of their powers and full of the confidence only success brings, with The King particularly eager to see how far the genre and the medium could be pushed… which is rather ironic since it was the company’s reticence to give the artist more creative freedom that led to Kirby moving to National/DC in the 1970s.

Without Kirby’s soaring imagination the rollercoaster of mindbending High Concepts gave way to more traditional tales of characters in conflict, as soap opera schtick and supervillain-tirades dominated Fights ‘n’ Tights dramas. With Lee & Kirby long gone but their mark very much stamped onto every page of the still-prestigious title, this full-colour compendium reruns Fantastic Four #192-214 and Annuals #12-13, spanning March 1978-January 1980.

What You Should Know: After facing his own Counter Earth counterpart Reed Richards lost his stretching powers. With menaces like Salem’s Seven, Klaw and Molecule Man still coming for him and his family, weary and devoid of solutions, Richards made the only logical decision and called it a day for the team…

Incoming writer/editor Marv Wolfman, brought a new direction which closely referenced the good old days with #192 proclaiming ‘He Who Soweth the Wind…!’ (illustrated by George Pérez & Joe Sinnott), as newly independent, fancy-free Johnny heads west to revisit his childhood dream of being a race car driver and unexpectedly meets old pal Wyatt Wingfoot.

Back East, Ben and girlfriend Alicia Masters ponder options as Reed gets a pretty spectacular job offer from a mystery backer. Suddenly, though, Johnny’s race career is upended when superpowered mercenary Texas Twister attacks at the behest of a sinister but unspecified stalker with a grudge to settle…

The admittedly half-hearted assault fails, but when Ben offers his services to NASA a pattern begins to emerge after he and Alicia are ambushed by old foe Darkoth in ‘Day of the Death-Demon!’ (plotted by Len Wein & Keith Pollard, scripted by Bill Mantlo, and illustrated by Pollard & Sinnott). The near-forgotten cyborg terror is determined to destroy an experimental solar shuttle, but doesn’t really know why, and as Ben ponders the inexplicable incident, in Hollywood, Susan Storm-Richards’ return to acting is inadvertently paused because alien shapeshifting loon the Impossible Man pays a visit. The delay gives Sue a little time to consider just how she got such a prestigious, dream-fulfilling offer so completely out of the blue at just the right moment…

At NASA, when Darkoth strikes again his silent partner is exposed as scheming alchemist Diablo, whilst in upstate New York, Reed slowly discovers his dreams of unlimited research time and facilities is nothing like he imagined. Finally, launch day comes and The Thing pilots the Solar Shuttle into space, only to have it catastrophically crash in the desert…

Joined by additional inker Dave Hunt, the creative pinch-hitters conclude the saga with ‘Vengeance is Mine!’ as Ben survives impact and searing sandstorms, tracks down his foes and delivers a crushing defeat to Diablo and Darkoth, whilst in FF #195 Sue learns who sponsored her revived Tinseltown ambitions when Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner renews his amorous pursuit of her. Embittered and lonely, he has fully forsaken Atlantis and the overwhelming demands of his people and state. Sadly, they have not done with him and despatch robotic warriors to drag him back to his duties in ‘Beware the Ravaging Retrievers!’ (Wolfman, Pollard & Pablo Marcos). Like everybody else, the metal myrmidons have utterly underestimated The Invisible Girl and pay the price, allowing the once-&-future prince to reassess his position and make a momentous decision…

As Johnny links up with Ben & Alicia, strands of a complex scheme begin to appear. In #196 they gel for self-deceiving Reed Richards as ‘Who in the World is the Invincible Man?’ depicts the enigmatic Man with the Plan secretly subjecting Reed to the mind-bending powers of the Pyscho-Man, just as Sue rejoins Ben & Johnny in New York City before being impossibly ambushed by a former FF foe. This time the man under the hood is not her father, but someone she loves even more…

Reunited with Reed, the horrified heroes are confronted by their greatest, most implacable enemy and the complicated plot to restore Reed’s powers finally unfolds. Victor Von Doom craves revenge but refuses to triumph over a diminished foe, but his efforts to re-expose Richards to cosmic rays is secretly hijacked by a rival madman in ‘The Riotous Return of the Red Ghost!’ (Wolfman, Pollard & Sinnott). Of course there’s more at stake, as Doom also seeks to legitimise his rule through a proxy son: planning to abdicate in his scion’s favour and have Junior take Latveria into the UN and inevitably to the forefront of nations…

Fully restored and invigorated, Mister Fantastic defeats an equally resurgent Red Ghost before linking up with Nick Fury (senior) and S.H.I.E.L.D. to lead an ‘Invasion!’ of Doom’s captive kingdom. Beside Latverian freedom fighter/legal heir to the throne Prince Zorba Fortunov, Richards storms into Doomstadt, defeating all in his path and foiling the secondary scheme of imbuing the ‘The Son of Doctor Doom!’ with the powers of the (now) entire FF and exposing the incredible secret of Victor von Doom II…

Months of deft planning (from Wolfman, Pollard & Sinnott) culminate in epic confrontation ‘When Titans Clash!’, as Doom and Richards indulge in their ultimate battle (thus far), with the result that the villain is destroyed and the kingdom liberated. For now…

A post-Doom era opens in FF #201 (December 1978) as the celebrated and honoured foursome return to America and take possession of empty former HQ the Baxter Building. Unfortunately, so does something else, attacking the family through their own electronic installations and turning the towering “des res” into ‘Home Sweet Deadly Home!’: a mystery solved in the next issue when it subsequently seizes control of Tony Stark’s armour to attack the FF again in ‘There’s One Iron Man Too Many!’, with John Buscema filling in for penciller Pollard. The monthly mayhem pauses after #203’s ‘…And a Child Shall Slay Them!’ wherein Wolfman, Pollard & Sinnott reveal the incredible powers possessed by dying cosmic ray-mutated child Willie Evans Jr.

When the foremost authority on the phenomenon is called in to consult, Dr. Reed Richards and his associates – and all of Manhattan – face savage duplicates of themselves manifested from FF devotee Willie’s fevered imagination…

Although the regular fun pauses here, two chronologically adrift King-Size specials follow, beginning with Fantastic Four Annual #12’s ‘The End of the Inhumans… and the Fantastic Four’ (Wolfman, Bob Hall, Pollard, Bob Wiacek & Marie Severin. When Johnny’s former flame Crystal – and gigantic Good Boi Lockjaw – teleport in seeking aid in finding the abducted Inhuman Royal Family, the team confronts ruthless Inhuman supremacist Thraxon the Schemer before exposing that megalomaniac’s secret master: the immortal unconquerable Sphinx. Despite his god-like powers, the united force of the FF plus Blackbolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Triton, Crystal and former Avenger Quicksilver proves sufficient to temporarily defeat their foe… or does it?

A year later, Annual #13 offered a more intimate and human tale from Mantlo, Sal Buscema & Sinnott as ‘Nightlife’ revealed how New York’s lost underclass was systematically being disappeared from the hovels and streets they frequented. With cameos from Daredevil and witch queen Agatha Harkness, the tale reveals a softer side to the FF’s oldest enemy and a return to addressing social issues for the team.

In monthly FF #204, Wolfman, Pollard & Sinnott detail ‘The Andromeda Attack!’ as Johnny goes out gallivanting and governess/guardian Agatha Harkness picks up little Franklin Richards, just as – with only grown-ups in residence – the building’s supercomputers pick up an astral anomaly, and materialise an alien princess in the lab. She’s instantly followed by a Super-Skrull who blasts her before falling to the FF’s counterattack. Interrogating the wounded woman, they learn she has come seeking help for her shattered world and near-extinct civilisation of Xandar…

Already illicitly supported by a Watcher breaking his oath of non-intervention, the last survivors of Andromeda’s most benign culture have been reduced to a quartet of domed stations linked together and careening through space, defended only by the last of their peacekeeper Nova Corps. Now the fugitives are being targeted for extinction by rapacious Skrulls and desperately need someone’s… anyone’s… assistance…

The FF are keen to help Suzerain Queen Adora return and happy to help the Xandarians, but the Human Torch has a new girlfriend and opts to stay behind for now to woo enigmatic Frankie Raye. He’s also set on finally following up on his long-postponed higher education commitments and has enrolled in specialist academic institution Security College. Naturally, Johnny promises to catch up later, but no sooner do his partners beam out to the stars than he’s attacked on campus by an old foe…

For #205, ‘When Worlds Die!’, Reed, Sue & Ben’s arrive with Adora at New Xandar finds the planetary remnants under attack by a Skrull war fleet, they join the Nova Corps to repel the assault, consequently driving closely-monitoring Skrull Emperor Dorrek insane with fury. Although Xandar’s physical resources are almost gone, he actually wants their greatest asset and treasure – a repository of their knowledge and power stored in an awesome array of superprocessors linking countless generations of expired citizens together: the Living Computers of Xandar! Chief administrator Prime Thoran and severely wounded Nova Centurion Tanak have been holding back the storm with ever-diminishing forces, but now need the FF to turn the tide, while back at Security College, Johnny has stumbled into mystery and peril too, as a strange force seizes control of the students…

In Andromeda, his family’s first foray against the Skrulls leads to their defeat and capture. Humiliated, tortured and put on display in a cruel show trial, they are ultimately blasted with a ray that will inescapably result in ‘The Death of… The Fantastic Four!’, rapidly aging them to the end of their natural lifespans in a matter of days. Dorrek’s gleeful gloating is spoiled, however, by the arrival of his terrifying, ambitious wife Empress R’kylll, the increased resistance of the Xandarians and, inevitably, the escape of the fast-aging Fantastic Four…

Ordering all-out assaults on the battered prey, Dorrek is further frustrated by Prime Thoran who gains astounding power by merging with the Living Computers of Xandar and the arrival of a colossal ship from Earth…

Here the saga dovetails with another Wolfman series that had recently ended its run on a cliffhanger. The Man Called Nova was in fact a boy named Richard Rider, a working-class nebbish in the tradition of Peter Parker, except he was good at sports and bad at learning, attending Harry S. Truman High School, where his strict dad was the principal. His mom worked as a police dispatcher and he had a younger brother, Robert, who was a bit of a genius. There were many more superficial similarities and cosmetic differences to Spider-Man. For more, you can either check out our numerous reviews or better yet, the actual comics tales, best seen in Nova Classic volumes #1-3. The 2-year saga culminated with Nova joining despised enemies The Sphinx (last seen battling the FF and Inhumans in Annual #12), Chinese superbrain-in-a-robot-body Doctor Sun, dastardly thug Diamondhead and hero-team The New Champions (The Comet, Crime-Buster and Xandarian refugee Powerhouse) aboard a pre-programmed, out-of-control spaceship hurtling towards Andromeda. Nova volume 1 ended with #25, with the unhappy crew lost in space and attacked by very angry Skrulls…

Meanwhile back at this review, those newcomers’ arrival piled on the pressure and concatenated the chaos as both the magical ancient immortal and futuristic Sino-cyborg abandoned ship, each determined to take the limitless power of Xandar’s Living Computer network for their own. Back on Earth for #207, Wolfman, Sal Buscema & Sinnott tune in on the Torch and favourite frenemy Spider-Man as they unite to expose the scandals of Security College, deprogram its students and almost fall foul of the sheer destructive ‘Might of the Monocle!’, after which the Torch joins his team in Andromeda. Aghast at the ongoing death sentence they’re enduring, Johnny is just as helpless before ‘The Power of The Sphinx!’ (Sal B & inking cavalry “D Hands” AKA Al Milgrom and Franks Giacoia & Springer) is boosted even further by stealing all the wisdom of the Living Computer system. With hyper-energised Prime Thoran busy battling Skrulls, the Sphinx soon solves the eternal secrets of the universe and heads back to Earth, resolved to turn back time and prevent his agonising eons of existence even happening, whilst seeing all reality endangered, increasingly elderly Reed has only one gambit to try…

John Byrne began his first tenure on the Fantastic Four with #209 (August 1979) as the reunited quartet seek to enlist the aid of cosmic devourer Galactus, pausing only long enough for Reed to construct – with Xandarian aid and resources – an all-purpose assistant. The result is the Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type, Integrated Electronics (latterly, Highly Engineered Robot Built for Interdimensional Exploration; don’cha just love nominative deterministic acronymics?).

At this time, an FF cartoon show had rejected fire hazard Johnny for a cutely telegenic robot, and Wolfman cheekily made that commercial rejection in-world canon here, dividing fans forever after, as the bleeping bot is pure Marmite in most readers eyes…

Riding the mile-long starship Nova & Co arrived in, the FF’s search takes them across the universe before leaving them ‘Trapped in the Sargasso of Space!’ to face murderous aliens determined to use the new vessel to escape their stasis hell. Meanwhile, the New Champions and Xandar’s forces prepare to face their final battle, just as impatient R’kylll divorces her husband with a single ray gun blast and changes the course of history…

Despite odd, inexplicable increasingly hazardous incidences, the FF continue ‘In Search of Galactus!’ and at last locate him, causing chaos in his colossal world-ship. Ultimately, they convince the Devourer to stop the Sphinx, but only by rescinding the vow that prevents Galactus from consuming Earth, and if the humans first bring him a new herald…

That occurs in ‘If This Be Terrax’, on a distant world enslaved by brutal despot Tyros, when the pitiless killer is painfully subdued by the heroes and converted by Galactus into a being who will rejoice in finding worlds to consume irrespective of whether civilisations will be consumed with them…

In #212, Earth trembles as the Devourer unleashes his herald to cow humanity whilst his master faces The Sphinx, but ‘The Battle of the Titans!’ is subject to mission creep when the immortal Egyptian wizard sees his new knowledge as a way to restore his own past glories. With his master fully occupied in cosmic combat, Terrax the Tamer seeks to settle scores with the humans who toppled Tyros’ kingdom, only to fall ‘In Final Battle!’ for a ploy devised by Reed and executed by H.E.R.B.I.E. It’s the last hurrah and a massive “Hail Mary” ploy as Reed joins Sue and Ben in cryo-suspension, seconds from death, and barely aware that Galactus has triumphed, but at immense cost…

Tragedy becomes triumph in closing episode ‘…And Then There Was… One!’ (FF #214, January 1980) as Johnny frantically seeks a cure for his family. When S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avengers and any others all prove helpless, a fortuitous attack by vengeful cyborg Skrull-X offers a grain of hope, but one necessitating a huge gamble: defrosting Reed and hoping he can use what the defeated alien revealed before rampant decrepitude ends the Smartest Man on Earth…

Of course, it all works out, but for what comes next you’ll need the next volume…

Here the compilation concludes with bonus material supplementing all those fabulous covers by Pérez, Sinnott, Giacoia, Pollard, Marcos, John Buscema, Steve Leialoha, Kirby, Milgrom, Dave Cockrum, Walter Simonson, Byrne, Ron Wilson, Joe Rubinstein and Rich Buckler. It includes House ads for comics and the TV cartoon; editorial corrections; Cockrum’s cover rough for #197; Kirby & Sinnott’s original cover art for #200 and the covers for Marvel Treasury Edition #21 by Bobs Budiansky & McLeod.

Also on view are Budiansky’s pencils for the cover of F.O.O.M. #22 and the printed final result from Autumn 1978 as inked by Sinnott, plus interior features ‘HERBIE the Robot Blueprints!’ and ‘Stan Lee Presents: The Fantastic Four Cartoon Show’…

Although the “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine” never quite returned to the stratospheric heights of the Kirby era, this collection offers an appreciative and tantalising taste-echo of those heady heights and a potent promise of fresher thrills to come. These extremely capable efforts are probably most welcome to dedicated superhero fans and continuity freaks like me, but will still thrill and delight the generous and forgiving casual browser looking for an undemanding slice of graphic narrative excitement.
© 2025 MARVEL.